Obedience Better Than Sacrifice Series

Monday of 2nd Week in Course

1 Sam 15: 16-23; Mark 2: 18-22

One of my friends who can’t attend daily Mass but devoutly reads the lessons each day was commenting on “how boring” the recent readings from Samuel are. Well, it’s good to be candid about your understanding of Scripture, but it’s possible here to miss the point even if you understand all the words.

The historical books of the Old Testament and the Deuterocanonicals, from Genesis to 2 Maccabees, really have purposes on multiple levels: on the literal level, they appear to be simply recollections of God’s people, the Hebrews, during the periods before, during and after the kingdom of David and Solomon. Write down your history so nobody forgets it.

But there’s a deeper level. Unlike any other nation, the Hebrews had a conviction, seared into their collective consciousness by the mighty deeds of God, that the one God, ruler of heaven and earth, had picked them out to be His special people. They actually had a history book back then, called the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings. But the author or authors of the books of Samuel and of Kings knew that a dry recitation of facts wasn’t enough to form the understanding of new generations of Jews in God’s Law. What we have today, then, is a book of theological history, of God’s continued care for His people and their uneven, mostly negative response to God.

And that leads us to the last of the three senses of these historical books, the one that is most meaningful to us. Because these books, as well as the Gospels, also serve as moral tales. Saul in his pride says to Samuel, “Well, old man, you said to destroy all this terrific stuff we took from Amalek. But we went you one better–we offered them as a sacrifice to the Lord. Why should we waste all this on wanton destruction? We know better.” It’s true that sometimes God’s plan looks irrational. Destroy all the loot. Command water to come from the dry rock. Send away more of the soldiers so you know that God wins the victory. Refuse to sacrifice to the idol even though you’ll get burned to death for a grain of incense. Support Catholic schools when there’s a free state school just down the block. Stand up for those unjustly oppressed–blacks, homeless, unborn–when it just brings you trouble. We second-guess God only to find out later that He was right all along. God’s wisdom transcends our own. God's wisdom is the new wine, and it needs new wineskins to store it--our own renewed minds and hearts, filled with the Holy Spirit and entirely obedient to the law of Christ.

Saul lost his kingdom because he thought he was smarter than God. And Samuel gives us the punch line, one we all might remember: “obedience is better than sacrifice.” That reminds us to spend time every day listening to the Word of God, searching for its significance in our daily life, and obeying that Word.