Thursday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/011212.cfm

If you saw yesterday's photo
you'll recognize his parents. 

The Philistines fought and Israel was defeated;
every man fled to his own tent.
It was a disastrous defeat,
in which Israel lost thirty thousand foot soldiers.
The ark of God was captured,
and Eli's two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were among the dead.

The story of Israel's defeat at Shiloh might be comical if it were not so tragic. Thirty thousand men were killed in this huge catastrophe. Many centuries later it must give us pause; it is certainly a sobering, instructive story. 

Despite their wonderful father, Eli, his sons Hophni and Phinehas were worthless. They jockeyed for leadership among the Israelites though they lacked both the skill and integrity to be worthy of  the honor. When they volunteered the use of Israel's most sacred shrine as a weapon against their enemies, God decamped. He would not be used in such a callous, irreverent fashion. 

Hophni and Phinehas had supposed God would have no choice but to defend Himself. A few days later the ark returned of its own accord, drawn by two faithful, long-suffering milk cows to Shilow, after being marched in a disastrous display through Philistine cities. The Philistines had discovered it was too dangerous to keep in their own camp when their temple was demolished, their cities, decimated; and their flesh, afflicted with tumors. (I Samuel 4-6)

Those with little knowledge of God often suppose they might use him to advance their own particular causes. They suppose that "God is on our side" when they engage in warfare. They think that God must surely bless their project for it's the right thing to do, even when they stand to profit by its success. 

They consider God a useful object that can be manipulated for their own ends. But God, the creator of all things, is not a thing to be manipulated. In fact, to put it bluntly, God is not a thing at all; and therefore beyond the reach of all manipulation. 

A secular age finds this unfathomable. It reifies everything, rendering it useful for its own purposes. "Facts" are marshaled to fit every scheme. As one pundit remarked, "There are lies, damned lies, and statistics." 

Science attempts both to prove and disprove God's existence. I met one intrepid doctor who intended to prove by experimentation that prayer is effective. He ordered his doctoral students to set up experimental seeds; some would be prayed over; and others, not -- to see which would germinate. 

But Truth is not so easily disintegrated into facts to fit neatly into test tubes. When they attempt such experiments they discredit the whole theory of "facts." They ram their entire Enlightened philosophy like a rocket powered car into the immovable escarpment of Reality. At the end of the day, Truth remains as an enormous mystery towering over every human endeavor. 

The debacle of Shilow reminds us that God acts as assistant to no one, but stands ready to assist us in every undertaking he bestows upon us.