1 Sam. 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23; Ps. 103:1-4, 8, 10, 12-13; 1 Cor. 15:45-49; Lk. 6:27-38
The Golden Rule “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” In the first reading David has the opportunity to strike Saul dead. Saul is in search of David to kill him and instead of David having the mindset of “the first Adam”, to do to Saul as he would do to you, he takes the mindset of the “last Adam” with a “life-giving spirit” and spares Saul with a clear sign of mercy by taking Saul’s “spear and water jug” while he slept. David acted in the spirit of Christ doing to Saul what he would have Saul do in return, spare his life. This is the new commandment “to love one another” as he loves us under the Golden Rule and the Lord will spare us for eternity.
Otherwise, what good is that! “That” is to live in the flesh as the “first Adam” with “earthy” beliefs giving to those who give you, good only to those who are good to you, and lending expecting a return. We are to put on the mind of God and today Jesus lays out this spiritual mindset to love the sinner despite the sins and pray for them. God is not done with them and he is not done with us either in our conversion to “bear the image of the heavenly one…the last Adam” to be perfect by doing to others as we would have them do to us.
God calls us to be perfect knowing that all perfection comes from him through his grace when we seek him. If only for this moment our prayer is to be “I will be perfect with the help your grace as called to be in the perfection of this moment”. In this moment we choose to respond to his grace within us to be perfect in our treatment of the “other” before us. Even if the last moment was far from perfect this moment is what I have to respond to. If in this moment through the grace of God we are perfect in our love, in our charity, in our mercy then the next moment may build upon it for now we enter into the kingdom of God where grace abounds. Let us bury the earthy Adam in us and rise with the last Adam into his kingdom this moment, this hour, in this circumstance that we are in. The Golden Rule is the response to the call to be perfect.
With perfection comes generosity. Spinoza the philosopher says, “If love is the goal generosity is the road to it.” God is love and we desire true love we desire God and God loves a cheerful giver. This is the meaning of today’s gospel, blessing those who curse you, doing good to all, giving of ourselves, being merciful and forgiving and the Lord cannot be outgiven in what he will “pour into our lap”.
The wisdom of David was to not commit sin to save his earthy flesh but to convert the heart of Saul from committing sin. Consider how our acts can be a source of conversion even for those who oppose us and desire our “death” in a cancel culture. Many tried to silence the apostles, imprison them and even have them put to death but their love and sacrifice only made for the conversion of many by their courage to not fear but love by the Golden Rule. David was a warrior taught to fight and defeat his enemy or lose in battle with his honor, his pride, his valor. The words humble, forgiving, and loving do not come from training on the earthy battle field. He did not learn the Golden rule from the world but from the spirit of God that lived within him.
The battlefield of our life is fought in the mind and in the spirit of truth. The mind is the battlefield leading us to act for good or evil, for righteousness or abuse, for justice or injustice. Even in its sleep it is processing creating dreams of its struggle to overcome the conflict of life. We can only come to rest our mind in thee, O Lord as we enter into the temple of the spirit of God within the holy ground of our soul. The soul of David was filled with the holy ground of the spirit from where the Golden Rule lived and went forth to conquer in the spiritual warfare of the world.
Saul was anointed by God and David was anointed by God yet one was overcome in the warfare of the mind for an earthy kingdom and the other chose the greater kingdom of the spirit of God. We have been anointed by God in our baptism and continue to receive God in the sacraments of the church, but the warfare of Saul and David remains within our soul. One will decrease and the other increase by our faith, hope, and love as we place our trust in the eternal God or in our own limited earthy power.
Recent Comments