\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
False Faith!\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what characterized the Israelis in the first reading.\u00c2\u00a0 Consider the evidence.\u00c2\u00a0 Before this section of the Book of Samuel, the Israelis can be characterized as sinners who depended on their own strength, not their God’s.\u00c2\u00a0 And so, they go into battle with a fierce competitor, confident of their own abilities.\u00c2\u00a0 But they lose; they lose big time.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
They never gave a second thought to God before that first battle.\u00c2\u00a0 And yet, they decide to bring the symbol of the Israeli God forward for the second battle.\u00c2\u00a0 No prayers; no fasting; no repentance; no humility precedes their second battle; but rather, a prideful foot stomping celebration and confidence that just presence of the symbol of their God will win the day.\u00c2\u00a0 The scriptures show that they lost the second time even more decisively than the first.\u00c2\u00a0 False faith!- that’s what they had.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Contrast this first story with the Gospel story.\u00c2\u00a0 A leper comes to Jesus with humility and says:\u00c2\u00a0 “If you wish, you can make me clean”.\u00c2\u00a0 Well thought out, don’t you think?\u00c2\u00a0 Because first, he says “If you wish”, he doesn’t begin with “please, please heal me Jesus”.\u00c2\u00a0 His whole demeanor is “Thy will be done” first.\u00c2\u00a0 Only after this does he say, “You can make me clean”.\u00c2\u00a0 The leper planned his appeal to Jesus; the leper had real faith; the leper humbly asked Jesus for help.\u00c2\u00a0 And he was rewarded for this approach.\u00c2\u00a0 God answered his prayer through His son Jesus.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now both of these stories happened so long ago.\u00c2\u00a0 What do they have to do with us today?\u00c2\u00a0 There are no great battles like that in my life at this very instant; and leprosy is a thing of the past.\u00c2\u00a0 But let me ask this simple question.\u00c2\u00a0 When you plan your daily activities, or before you encounter a big challenge in your life; has the Lord been your constant companion in prayer?\u00c2\u00a0 Do you come humbly before the Lord with your request planning your appeal with all humility and respect for your God?\u00c2\u00a0 Or is your appeal something that happens only after you get in to trouble?\u00c2\u00a0 Does it take a wake-up call- an illness, a job loss, an accident, a betrayal, to get you to ask for God’s help?\u00c2\u00a0 Or have you had a believing constant relationship with him before your appeal?\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, is your faith false- vested in the symbol of your God; or is it real; ahave \u00c2\u00a0living vibrant relationship with the God you believe in.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00c2\u00a0 Thursday of the First Week in Ordinary Time 1 Sam 4: 1-11: Mk 1: 40-45 Dc. Larry Brockman False Faith!\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what characterized the Israelis in the first reading.\u00c2\u00a0 Consider the evidence.\u00c2\u00a0 Before this section of the Book of Samuel, the Israelis can be characterized as sinners who depended on their own strength, not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}