Defeating Goliaths: Wednesday, 2nd week

Few stories are more Hollywood-like than the story of David and Goliath. The story not only appeals to some historical facts, but mainly to a strong desire of our hearts, the desire to defeat powerful enemies.

David embodies the genuineness and innocence. Goliath incarnates the powerful, scornful evil ready to destroy. David was inexperienced, young, inspired and ingenious. Goliath was trained to kill, strong and mean. We all want to believe that this story is true because we want our own “Goliaths” to be defeated. We need to believe that victory is on the side of the innocent even if he is less powerful. That belief that ingenuity is more powerful than brute force, is also celebrated in the famous story of the Trojan horse.

However, we are used to hearing these stories from the point of view of the winners, you know, those who write history. There has been a real event that tells the same story from the “other” side. September 11 was in a way a remake of the David-Goliath story. This time also, ingenuity defeated the powerful. The forehead of Goliath was wounded by three airplanes directed to the main vital organs of the giant. The giant was not dead, but was certainly wounded. How did it feel to be on the side of the Philistines when Goliath fell on his face? Perhaps for the first time, the world has the answer.

Now that we know, the question still remains where we should aim the sling? The awakened “mighty giant” is now looking for its own Goliath. Goliath is now depicted as hiding in the desert, or lurking in the main cities’ suburbs, living with us, quietly and stealthily like a deadly virus, surfacing sneakily on the Internet, omnipresent, almost omniscient and ready to jump.

The Bible does tell how David, in turn, became a little Goliath, a kind of little emperor of his land. And that story continues to be true. Jesus was not a David nor a Goliath. The son of David had a unique way to be a king, without throne, sword and also without sling. The Goliath he tried to defeat was not a human brother, but the perennial desire of looking for Goliaths. Where is really our Goliath today?

Saturday, 1st Week

In the past, there was a tendency to abuse the concept of sin and moral deviance, often extending it to innocent people who suffered psychological traumas.

Today, however, there is an increasing tendency to consider the criminal as a victim, a victim of social status, a victim of his genetic make up or even his psychological conditions. We are seeing more and more criminals who are more in need of treatment than in need of punishment.

So, which route shall we take?

Yes, we have heard it many times before, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.” We know how doctors cure and treat patients, but what exactly did Jesus do with sinners? How did he “treat” sinners? The three gospels coincided in this point: “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Jesus did not punish them, neither did he accuse them, nor treated them as victims. Instead, Jesus “called” them.

Judging and condemning are too often not very useful to the culprit. Excusing them for lack of responsibility is both ignoring the reality of the harm of sin and denying the sinner’s freedom. Only by calling them (to repentance), do both respect their freedom and integrity, hence, changing them into better persons.

Why has the church always been incriminated of accusing and charged with being a factory of “neurotics”? Have we learnt to call as Jesus called, or have we forgotten how he did it?

Friday, 1st week

“I want to have the Playstation like other children have.” What others have becomes our standard of what we must have early in life. Sometimes parents also make use of the “like the others” argument to try to entice their children into the appropriate response: “See how other children are doing so well?”

The people of Israel had fallen into the same trend. Soon after they arrived at the promised land, they wanted to be “like the other” peoples and be governed by their own king. They were warned by the prophet that having a human king did not come without risks. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Soon these kings would start abusing their power and would take advantage of the people. Authority would soon evolve from a form of service into a kind of power to “lord over the people they were called to serve”.

Yet, the yearning to be “like the others” was a more powerful drive, and Israel demanded that God gave them a king. Within the Church we don’t lack the same kind of thinking. “The world does…”, “how long shall we wait until the Church does…” These are common murmurings of the new people of Israel. God respected this misguided freedom and gave in. The people of Israel had their king.

Sure enough, these kings did abuse their power and led Israel from disaster to disaster. God wills us to remain “under the control of our own decisions”. Mistake is the price we pay for freedom. We are awakened to truth in freedom. And that implies the risk of failing and falling. Only after the failure of many kings, a remnant of the people was ready to see in Jesus, the true king, who used his power “to serve, and not to be served.”

Jesus healed the paralytic because they thought they needed visible signs. But the true power of Jesus is invisible. It is the power to heal from sin. Because this is the power that is most needed, Jesus is the kind who is most needed. Which mistakes have awakened us into the truth lately? Which failures have helped us realize what is the right path?

St. Anthony Abbot

He is the founder of monastic life. He was born in Egypt in 251. One day in church, he listened to the words of Jesus in the gospel, “leave everything, give it to the poor and then follow me”, and he did just that. He went out into the wilderness to begin a life of penance, living in absolute poverty, praying, meditating and supporting himself by manual work. Disciples gathered around him, attracted by his wisdom, moderation and holiness.

Although living in solitude, he did not live apart from the world, but supported the persecuted victims of Diocletian, and helped St. Athanasius in his fight against the Arians. That text of the gospel, not only transformed his life but also changed the life of the Church. The same thing happened to St. Francis of Assisi. Upon hearing the same gospel, he left everything and founded the Franciscan Order.

A virus behaves only as a living thing when it is inside a life cell. In the same way, the words of Scripture can only “infect” the world when they become alive in human hearts that had learnt to listen and had allowed the words of Scripture to transform them.