Thursday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 308

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 four books of Samuel and Kings are considered part of the Deuteronomic history, including the Book of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges and parts of Jeremiah. The authors interpret the troubled history of Israel from the conquest of Canaan to the fall of Jerusalem as a morality story. God rewards virtue and punishes wickedness.

In today’s story from I Samuel, we can hear the historians’ satisfaction in the battle deaths of Eli’s sons, Hophni and Phinehas. These men had a most honorable father but they were greedy and power hungry. Plus the Hebrews assumed God must fight for them against the Philistines; his Ark of the Covenant could be used as a weapon. The historians saw the ensuing defeat as God’s punishment for impiety. The Ark would return to Shilow on its own without Jewish assistance, as the humble oxen obeyed the Spirit of God.

It is not easy to read recent history through the lens of Deuteronomy. Veterans ask, "Why did we win every battle in Vietnam and lose the war? Were we not fighting for the good, true and just? Weren’t the Communists set on the destruction of the United States and all civilization? Does God not punish the wicked and reward the just?"

I do not pretend to answer “the question of evil.” (If God is all powerful and all good, why do evil things happen?) But I recognize and honor it. If good is not rewarded and evil is not punished then our faith is empty. Many Veterans have seen naked, horrifying evil. They suffer a “moral injury” which cannot be treated with medicines and may not respond to psychological treatment. They may learn to cope with PTSD, but their moral injury sabotages every effort, ambition and relationship.

Without the assurance that good will be rewarded, why sacrifice anything? Events seem totally random. Nothing good comes of good effort and evil can invade from any direction. Why vote? Why marry? Why care for children or the elderly? Why volunteer for worthy causes? Why endure the suffocating presence of other people in churches, companies or clubs.

There is little solid research about “moral injury.” Apparently, it may follow any traumatic incident, especially where the law breaks down; war, drive-by shootings, gang violence, rape, assault, incest and so forth.

I have not suffered that moral injury. I have not lived in a war zone even for a few minutes, or on a legal frontier between law and barbarism. I have always lived within a law-abiding society and the thin blue line police draw around me. I don’t know what goes on outside it. My faith in right and wrong, reward and punishment has not been shaken by bitter experience.

Confronted with the incredulity of those who have lost faith, I cannot take their experience as my own. That would honor neither of us. Rather, I turn to prayer and scripture. I hear again the reassuring promises on every page of the Bible.


Pope Francis has written of the Blessed Mother:

285. On the cross, when Jesus endured in his own flesh the dramatic encounter of the sin of the world and God's mercy, he could feel at his feet the consoling presence of his mother and his friend.

Mary, prayer, the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit continually repeat the reassuring promise of God. Every fourth Tuesday, during the Office of Readings, we read the 37th Psalm.

Refrain from anger; abandon wrath; do not be provoked; it brings only harm. Those who do evil will be cut off, those who wait for the LORD will inherit the earth. Wait a little, and the wicked will be no more; look for them and they will not be there. The poor will inherit the earth, they will delight in great prosperity. (Psalm 37: 8-11)

With hope restored I approach my day, the friars and the hospital again, saying with the Lord, "I am here."