How to Become Courageous Like David… and Jesus, 2nd Wednesday (II), January 17, 2018

Fr. Roger J. Landry
Visitation Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan
Wednesday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time, Year II
Memorial of St. Anthony of the Desert
January 17, 2018
1 Sam 17:32-33.37.40-51, Ps 144, Mk 3:1-6

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

The following points were attempted: 

• Today’s readings and the example of the saint we are celebrating today all speak to us about courage. In the first reading, we see one of the most famous examples of courage not just in the Bible but in history. For 40 days Goliath had been calling on someone from the Israelite Camp to come out and fight him, one-on-one, to determine the outcome of the battle between the Israelites and the Philistines. But none of those on the Israelite side, including Saul, were willing to take him up on the challenge. Everyone was too cowardly. The text tells us that they were all “dismayed and terror-stricken.” David, however, was not. He was a young boy, a harpist — not exactly a form of music associated with warriors! — who had with him a simple slingshot that he would use to get the attention of the sheep he would watch. He heard Goliath’s challenge on the 40th day as he was bringing food to his older brothers in Saul’s army. He volunteered. He was not afraid of going head to head — more like head to waist! – against the 6’9”warrior with all the latest gear, a heavy, long sword, a javelin with an iron head weighing 15 pounds and bronze scimitar, a bronze helmet on his head, a bronze corselet of scale armor weighing 125 pounds. David didn’t even bother with using Saul’s armor. He was satisfied with his sling and five stones he got from a Wadi because he knew he would be acting “in the name of the Lord.” He said, “Not by sword or spear that the Lord saves, for the battle is the Lord’s!” And we know how the story ends.
• In today’s Gospel, we see an example of Jesus’ courage. We’re not normally accustomed to look at Jesus’ courage except perhaps on Good Friday, but today we see it. He was risking his life contradicting the Scribes and the Pharisees with regard to their misunderstanding of the Sabbath. It was because of Jesus’ words about and works of charity on the Sabbath that they would plot to kill him. Jesus met in the synagogue a man with a withered hand and immediately responded with compassion. The Greek word used to describe his hand strongly suggests it was withered through an injury, not because of something from birth. And Jesus wanted to cure his hand and allow him to use it to work and build up a life for himself. But the Pharisees present didn’t look at the injured man in the same way. They were indifferent to his plight. Far more important to them was keeping their idolatrous notion of the Sabbath. Hence Jesus asked if it were against God’s law and will to do good and save life. They didn’t reply. And St. Mark tells us that Jesus looked at them with anger at their malice and malevolence and was grieved at their hardness of heart, which prevented them not only from seeing the place of charity in the law of God but also from looking on this man with love. Jesus’ question, “Is it lawful to do good … rather than evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?,” is still very relevant today. Jesus had the courage to do good, even when it would cost him.  Jesus was essentially asking if it was possible to love someone in deeds on the Lord’s day. He was querying whether it was possible to save or redeem. Jesus’ opponents didn’t respond because they knew how ridiculous their response would seem, but after Jesus was gone, the Pharisees went out on the Sabbath, on the Lord’s day, and began to conspire with the Herodians (with whom they would ordinarily not interact at all because of the Herodians’ licentiousness and relations with the Romans) about how to put Jesus to death. They apparently thought nothing was wrong in using the sabbath to “do evil” and to “destroy” life, but they homicidally objected to Jesus’ trying to do good and save life. Jesus had come to do good, but they were plotting evil; he was seeking to enhance the injured man’s life, and they were seeking grounds to end Jesus’. But Jesus was courageous enough to look them in the face, to look death in the face, and help this man whom he had come to save.
• What are the motivations of courage? We can see three of them in today’s readings.
  • The first is faith, like we see in David, who believed in the power of God. A slingshot and five stones were nothing compared to Goliath; but a slingshot, five stones and God was plenty.
  • The second is charity. Jesus had compassion on the man and it led him courageously to act in his favor. Love can make even a petite woman a mamma bear to defend her children.
  • The third is righteous indignation. Jesus was angry at the hardness of heart of those who didn’t care about the man in the synagogue. Likewise our holy anger can get us to stand up against the victims of injustice and act.
• What are the weapons of our courage? Pope Francis a few years asked what are our “five stones.” I think we can adapt his insights and describe five that should be in our shepherd’s pouch:
  • The first is prayer. The weapon of prayer is the first and most powerful arm in a Christian’s armory.
  • The second is the Holy Eucharist, which strengthens us from within with Christ and his fortitude.
  • The third is the Word of God, which is sharper than a two-edge sword.
  • The fourth is God’s mercy, which can return us to our baptismal graces so that we won’t fear death because we know we’re in communion with God, a communion that will last past death.
  • The fifth is the communion of the Church, a communion with all the saints and martyrs, all of the angels, all of the others praying for us throughout the world and joining us in our collective witness.
• We have a great illustration of different forms of courage in the great saint we celebrated today, St. Anthony of the Desert. When he was 18, both of his parents died and he was left with all of their rich lands. He went to Church one day when the story of the Rich Young Man was being proclaimed in the Gospel. Upon hearing the words of Jesus, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me,” he courageously took them literally and responded wholeheartedly. He did what the Rich Young Man was too afraid to do. He sold all that he had, giving some money to relatives, paying for his sister to enter with a community of faithful women and gave the rest to the poor. Then he even more courageously left civilization behind and went out into the desert for the next 86 years, where he famously was tempted by the devil in all types of ways. What he endured would have terrorized most soldiers, but he knew that the Lord was there with him in the desert to strengthen him to pass those tests, just as Jesus passed the tests in the Judean desert. Eventually all types of people came to him to receive spiritual guidance and he helped them grow in faith, love and courage, in the midst of anti-Christian persecution or in the midst of the battles being fought against the true faith. And his example has inspired over the centuries so many saints, Saint Athanasius and Saint Augustine at the forefront, to fight the good fight with courage as well.
• In today’s Psalm, we prayed, “Blessed be the LORD, my rock, who trains my hands for battle, my fingers for war.” We called him our refuge, fortress, stronghold, deliverer, and shield. Every Mass we begin in this boot camp where he trains our hands for battle by joining them in prayer and in communion. Let us ask him today as we receive him to fill us with the faith, charity and holy anger to lead us through prayer, the Sacraments of the Eucharist and Penance, the Word of God and the communion of the Church, to fight the good fight of faith like David did, like St. Anthony did, like Jesus himself did!

The readings for today’s Mass were: