God really does know best: Homily for Monday, January 15, 2024

Readings for Today. Listen to our other podcasts.

Do we know more than God? The American problem is to think we are always right. We tend to think that somehow what we think is on a par with what God thinks. And therein is the problem. Today’s first reading reminds us that it is not a new problem.

Table of Contents

How to hear the voice of God

King Saul had one fundamental flaw. He cared too much what others people thought. We see that over and over and over again in his life. He cared too much what other people thought. And that flaw really ultimately cost him just about everything. We see it in today’s reading.

I suspect that Saul decided, well, you know what, if they take the best and they sacrifice it to God and they like me for being successful, then what does it matter what God said? We’re going to see this later on when King David defeats Goliath, the Philistine. And the women sing this silly song that doesn’t make much sense to me, but it really got under Saul’s skin because Saul was given credit for slaying thousands and David was given credit for slaying tens of thousands.

And Saul was just beside himself. And rather than admitting that he cares too much what other people think, he goes out to kill David. He goes out and does horrible, evil things. He chases David all over the place to kill him. But even worse than that, he’s rejected by God as king.

Now, deep inside of us, I suspect, if it’s not the same problem as Saul, we probably have something in us that we’re always struggling against in order to do the right thing. It might be the problem of Saul, caring too much what other people think about us, and seeking to please people, even in doing the wrong thing. But if it makes them happy, well, okay.

It may be other things. It may be that we don’t want to look, let’s say, at our selfishness. I think of that in myself right now. I have barely left the house these days. It’s so cold. Now, I grew up in this. This is not the first rodeo, shall we speak. I remember leaving my mother’s house and going back to St. Louis a few years ago, and the air temperature was 23 below. Okay, so I know cold.

But does my knowledge of cold and my unwillingness to leave the house spur me on to action for those that don’t have my blessings? I can’t imagine what it’s like to have uncertainty in the housing in this weather. I can’t. It should spur me to do something. But does it really? I think there’s a deeper fundamental flaw, though, that we need to kind of grapple with in our own lives in terms of the gospel.

Do we really believe that God is God, or one very smart person among many, with whom we could disagree if it didn’t suit us? See, because that’s really what’s going on here. God was very clear to Saul what he was supposed to do, and what he allowed his men to do was not allowed. It was not allowed.

We do that, at least I know I do. I shouldn’t speak for you. I don’t know. But I know that one of the challenges I can have is, this doesn’t make much sense. What was God thinking? As if somehow I know better than God.

I think this is a uniquely American problem. I think it is a first-world problem, that somehow we know better than God. Such is a challenge in our lives. But we see what happens when we don’t really place ourselves in the presence of God and identify God for who he is. We can be rejected. Or at the very least, our actions can be rejected. We’re not God’s anointed.

By the way, I’ll give you, even though his life was far from perfect, as we know, when King David, before he was King David, had the chance to kill Saul, he didn’t. Because Saul was the Lord’s anointed. That’s what God told him. And he said, who could harm the Lord’s anointed without being harmed? Now David’s going to have his other problems. Don’t misunderstand me.

But it does challenge me, at least today, to think, do I really believe that God is God? When God tells me to love him and to love my neighbor, do I really take that seriously? Or am I like King Saul, thinking that, well, it’s reasonable that I would allow this. What’s the problem, even though God told me not to? Let us ask the Lord for the grace to follow him as his disciples, wherever he leads.

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