THE KINGSHIP OF SINFUL SELF


SATURDAY, FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME 

1 Sam 9:1-4,17-19,10:1; Ps 21:2-7; Mk 2:13-17

Recognising the Doctor of Our Souls

Happy the day when we recognised that something is wrong with us. It is difficult for a sinner to come to that realisation. It is only the grace of God that helps us perceive our sorry and sinful state and start asking questions about the existence of possible remedies. Sin so disorients the inner structure that we lose sight of God as the origin of our life and doings, making us consider ourselves as the king and centre of our life and activities. The rulership of our sinful self is characterised by darkness and externalities. The sinful self considers itself a king, wielding authority over whatever has to do with us and others. When we were in sin, we considered evil to be whatever displeases us, and good whatever pleases us. We judged the world as starting and ending with us, existing for our good pleasure. God, in his infinite mercy and love, gradually breaks into this cocoon of ours to rattle our views and self-confidence. God shakes our self-arrogated kingship to bring us to see how mistaken we are in our conception of the world and how sick we are in our conduct towards others. We are on the path to conversion when we realise that every authority and power belongs to God, who knows and understands all things.

The decision of the people of Israel to have a visible king different from the prophets and judges God appointed to represent him was displeasing to Samuel and to God because it was a decision to move in the wrong direction. Moving from divine kingship to institutional and human kingship was sinful and misdirected, for it would promote sin and the self-instituted kingship as explained above. But God permitted it when they refused to change their minds. Being God, he will always work out salvation from our bad and sinful choices. Subsequently, God chose Saul among all the young men in Israel. We can only guess the reason for his choice, as revealed in the fact that Saul was willing to consult God to solve a personal and a family problem—the loss of she-donkeys. “When Samuel saw Saul, the Lord told him, ‘That is the man of whom I told you; he shall rule my people.’ Saul accosted Samuel in the gateway and said, ‘Tell me, please, where the seer’s house is?’ Samuel replied to Saul, ‘I am the seer. Go up ahead of me to the high place. You are to eat with me today. In the morning, I shall take leave of you and tell you all that is in your heart.” The desire to consult God for a solution to his personal and family problem reveals a heart headed in the right direction. It is an indication of wisdom, for the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A wiseman is to rule the people of God, for God would rule his people through the wisdom in him.

The same indication of self-realisation as inadequate and needing God’s help is found in the tax collectors and public sinners who sought the company of Jesus Christ. Their desire to seek his company was pleasing to our Lord. He knew the disposition of Levi, the tax collector, and called him. “As he was walking on, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting by the customs house, and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he got up and followed him.” To follow someone means that we recognise the person as superior to us and able to guide us in wisdom. By abandoning his office and riches, Levi chose the Son of Man to be his king. In his love for us, Jesus chooses and anoints us to share the kingship, which is his by nature, just as God chose Saul and anointed him. “Samuel took a phial of oil and poured it on Saul’s head; then he kissed him, saying, ‘Has not the Lord anointed you prince over his people Israel? You are the man who must rule the Lord’s people, and who must save them from the power of the enemies surrounding them.”

Saint Anthony of Egypt set out into the desert like Saul, looking not for she-donkeys, but for God to reign over his life. God equally anointed him king in the desert, to reign over wild beasts and spirits. He was born in Egypt in 251 AD. When he lost his parents, he listened to the Gospel and gave his possessions to the poor, went into the wilderness to live a life of absolute poverty, prayer, and manual labour. He overcame his physical and spiritual temptations to trace the monastic path for the Church. Many joined his way of life after seeing his wisdom, moderation, and holiness. He lived up to a hundred years old and died in 356 AD. May his prayers help us to know our dire need of the Saviour.

Let us pray: O God, who brought the Abbot Saint Anthony to serve you by a wondrous way of life in the desert, grant, through his intercession, that, denying ourselves, we may always love you above all things. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.  

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