Day 118: King Saul Despairs

1 Samuel 27:8-12 David’s brutal slaughter of prisoners cannot be condoned, and neither can his outright lies to the Philistine leaders. This does show David’s resourcefulness and abilities as a warrior: he avoids Judah for fear of Saul while at the same time defeating Judah’s enemies and protecting himself from the Philistines through trickery. (CCC 2313)

Ch 28:8 Conjuring dead spirits was against the Mosaic Law, and any kind of divination is in violation of the First Commandment. The Church teaches that any consultation of mediums, seances, palm readers, astrological signs, horoscopes, or seers is gravely sinful since it at least implicitly seeks a preternatural intervention that involves demonic forces. This practice also reflects an inordinate desire to acquire knowledge and to control future events that are within God’s competence alone. (CCC 2115-2117)

Psalm 34 It is unusual for a psalm of praise to offer instruction to the faithful, but this psalm does precisely that. The first half of the psalm flows into verses 11-14, which resemble the wisdom literature of the Old Testament, before returning to the typical and standard words of praise. The Lord is rightly given credit for the protection and ultimate prosperity enjoyed by the righteous, whose righteousness not only consists in obeying the Law but also is primarily connected to humility and repentance before God. 

“The Lord is always near those who sincerely invoke him, that is, those who have recourse to him with upright faith, firm hope, and perfect charity,” taught St. Ambrose. “In fact, he knows what you stand in need of even before you ask him for it; he is always ready to meet the needs of those who serve him faithfully” (St. Ambrose, In Epistolam Beati Pauli ad Philippenses, 4). 

He keeps all his bones...broken: John states in his Gospel that this prophecy was fulfilled when the Roman soldiers found Christ already dead on the Cross and so did not break his legs, a method of speeding up death for the crucified (cf. Jn 19:36)

Evil shall slay the wicked: In reality, condemnations from the Lord are simply a result of the self-inflicted damage caused by sin. Those who lead virtuous and holy lives allow themselves to be protected, helped, and blessed by God. (CCC 336, 1706)

(*The Didache Bible RSV-CE Ignatius Edition, 2006)

• Not only do we hear the story of David, who is so much on the run that he goes and lives among King Acshish of Gath

• Remember, these are the people who are the ENEMIES of Israel

• David is living amongst them in the land of the Philistines

• One of the things we will see soon is that the Philistines don’t trust David, but King Acshish does

• He trusts him because even though David goes on to raid the Amalekites, the Geshurites, and the Girzites, David is telling the king that he is raiding the Israelites

• King Acshish thinks David has burned his bridges and that Israel will not take him back

• Meanwhile, back in Israel, the Philistines are massing a huge army against King Saul

• King Saul has been abandoned by God here and has no certainties when leading his people about what will happen

• King Saul does what many of us do when GOD IS SILENT

• He turns to something OTHER THAN GOD to have a sense of what he should do next

• He consults a MEDIUM or a SEER or a WITCH of ENDOR (Hold up hold up….does this mean that the Starwars Universe takes place in the same universe as ours?? After all, the Ewoks lived on the forest moon of ENDOR!!!! 🤓)

• Saul had, in the past, prohibited wizardry and mediums throughout the land

• AND YET…

• Saul is desperate

• We can also be desperate that we are willing to do the thing that is COMPLETELY PROHIBITED

• OUT OF FEAR

• One of the reasons when we read this story and realize that we can see in Saul someone we RELATE TO

• SOMEONE JUST LIKE MYSELF

• WE KNOW RIGHT AND WRONG

• AND YET…

• When I am in a place of FEAR

• When I am in a place of INSECURITY

• When I am in a place of DESPERATION

• Then doing the WRONG THING can be VERY VERY APPEALING

• SAUL DOES THE WRONG THING

• Saul consults the medium to talk to the prophet Samuel

• What shocks some people is that the medium is actually able to connect to Samuel

• Why is this shocking to us?

• Sometimes, we have grown accustomed to thinking that it’s not real

• Sometimes, we have grown accustomed to thinking that mediums are fake or charlatans or a hoax 

• There might be mediums that are fake

• There might be mediums that are a hoax

• AND YET…

• We recognize the SPIRITUAL world is VERY VERY REAL

• In fact, IT MAY BE MORE REAL than the MATERIAL WORLD (Because guess what? You and I are going to die one day, but spirits are ETERNAL)

• The recognition is that Samuel’s soul was separated from his body since he was dead and his body was buried at Ramah

• Samuel’s SOUL was very much in existence

• Samuel’s GHOST

• A GHOST is the SOUL that has been separated from the BODY of the person

• So sometimes, we are tempted to have recourse to NECROMANCY

• NECROMANCY is COMMUNICATING WITH THE DEAD

• This is COMPLETELY FORBIDDEN in both the Old Testament, the New Testament, AND TODAY

• CCC 2115: (Divination and Magic) God can reveal the future to His prophets or to other saints. Still, a sound Christian attitude consists in putting oneself confidently into the hands of Providence for whatever concerns the future, and giving up all unhealthy curiosity about it. Improvidence, however, can constitute a lack of responsibility.

• The Christian attitude means that I put myself CONFIDENTLY into the hands of GOD HIMSELF for WHATEVER CONCERNS THE FUTURE giving up ALL UNHEALTHY CURIOSITY

• So we TRUST GOD and put ourselves in HIS HANDS

• GOD IS THE GOD OF ALL TIME

• GOD IS THE GOD OF EVERYTHING

• At the same time, we have to be aware of the fact that RIGHT NOW is the most important moment

• Sometimes, THIS MOMENT is to prepare for THE NEXT MOMENT

• Sometimes, the TASK OF THIS DAY is to prepare for TOMORROW

• We only do the task of TODAY 

• But SOMETIMES we need to prepare for TOMORROW

• There is such a balance of TRUST in God RIGHT NOW and being aware of the fact that the task of RIGHT NOW might be to PREPARE FOR TOMORROW

• CCC 2116: All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to “unveil” the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire of power over time, history, and in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone. 

• Saul was appealing to a medium to get an answer that GOD WOULD NOT PROVIDE

• This is REMARKABLE 

• Tarot cards are NOT FUN

• Ouija boards are NOT FUN

• Horoscopes are NOT FUN

• The Church does not condemn these things because they are silly

• The Church condemns these things because they are DANGEROUS

• There is POWER here

• We need to recognize there is a SPIRITUAL WORLD

• Angels are spirits after all

• But there are also spirits that REJECTED GOD

• These spirits are NOT TO BE MESSED WITH

• That’s what we mess with when we consult horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, omens, lots, etc

• We are dealing with something or someone OTHER THAN GOD HIMSELF

• Some people will swear by these things

• And they may have even gotten an answer they wanted

• BUT THEY GOT IT FROM THE WRONG SOURCE

• The medium in 1 Samuel doesn’t PRETEND that he can conjure Samuel up

• HE ACTUALLY DOES IT

• And it is to SAUL’S DETRIMENT

• The same thing is true for ANYONE who calls upon these mediums, horoscope, ouija boards, etc

• If that has been part of your life, PLEASE get rid of those things

• BURN THEM

• THROW THEM AWAY

• GO TO CONFESSION

• IT IS A SERIOUS SERIOUS VIOLATION OF THE FIRST COMMANDMENT

• IT IS PLACING YOUR OWN ETERNAL SOUL INTO GREAT GREAT JEOPARDY

• THIS IS REALLY HEAVY

• What’s the consequence for Saul?

• Oh, he’s going to die tomorrow says Samuel

• DON’T BE AFRAID

• JESUS CHRIST CONQUERS EVERYTHING

• BUT…

• WE HAVE TO TURN AWAY FROM ALL SOURCES OF EVIL LIKE THIS

• WE HAVE TO TURN BACK TO THE LORD

• REPENT

• GO TO CONFESSION WHEN YOU HAVE THE CHANCE

• GET RID OF ALL TRACES OF THESE THINGS IN YOUR LIVES

• WE ARE CALLED HIGHER AND IT IS A GIFT

• There is a spiritual world out there THAT WE ARE PART OF

• At the same time, we need to TRUST IN THE LORD more than anything else

• EVEN WHEN HE IS SILENT

• DO NOT TRY TO TAKE CONTROL OF THE FUTURE IN YOUR OWN HANDS

• It’s hard

• SO KEEP PRAYING FOR EACH OTHER

• PRAY FOR FR. MIKE

Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven, we give you praise and we honor you today and we thank you. Thank you for your goodness. Thank you for making us a body and soul. Thank you for giving us life and breath in this world that you have created, this world you have made good, this world that is good but is unsafe, this world that is good but has been broken, and these hearts of ours that are good but broken. Lord God, we ask you to come into the brokenness, because all those things that you make are good. Even though they have been broken, you still love us. Even though we are broken, you still love us. And even though this world is broken, you still love it and you still can redeem it. You HAVE redeemed it by the Sacrifice, the Life, the Death, and the Resurrection of your Son. You have sent your Holy Spirit upon this world, this broken but good world. So that it may be holy, that we may be holy. Help us live a life consecrated to you this day and every day. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.”