In the first reading for mass today, the Israelites were being severely beaten in battle with the Philistines. Four thousand men were killed in the battle and things looked pretty dim. They started grumbling against God, “Why has the Lord permitted us to be defeated today by the Philistines?” They were the chosen people, shouldn’t God be on their side? If they were the people of God, why wasn’t He helping them?
Then, the Israelites got this bright idea to go get the ark of the covenant and bring it into the battle with them. They took matters into their own hands and brought the ark of the covenant right into their camp. Maybe they thought if God was with them, they would be unstoppable. Or, maybe they thought the ark of the covenant was like a lucky charm, that it held magical powers that would protect them, just by it’s very presence.
If nothing else, the ark of the covenant did boost the morale of the men who were fighting, and scare the enemy, but it was a really cheap tactic. God isn’t a lucky charm, and mankind should not be trying to manipulate Him.
The Israelites learned a very hard lesson about the nature of God, because in the end they lost thirty thousand men and the ark of the covenant was lost in the battle as well. It couldn’t have turned out any worse than this. God does not like to be manipulated. The Israeli army would have been so much better off, if they had simply fallen on their knees and prayed to God, asking for His help. All they did was grumble against God and then try to force Him to help them in battle.
At least the leper had the right idea in today’s gospel. He knelt down and asked Jesus to heal him. Jesus was moved with pity when the leper knelt before him and in his compassion, he healed the leper.
Before we praise the virtues of this man too much though, we should realize that he disobeyed the Lord. Evidently, he got what he wanted. His leprosy was cured. He would be important now, and people would notice him because of this miracle that he had received from Jesus. So, even though Christ specifically told him not to tell anyone, the leper did it anyway. He ran around town telling everyone about the miracle that he had received from the Lord. What an ungrateful leper! The only thing Jesus asked in exchange for the miracle was to keep quite about it, but the leper didn’t have enough respect for the man who gave him the miracle to heed his words.
As a result of the lack of respect this leper committed by disobeying Jesus’s request to keep quiet about the miracle, the Lord was forced to remain outside of the city in deserted places so that he wouldn’t be mobbed by the crowd.
The Israelites and the leper as well, showed profound disrespect for God and for His son. They only wanted to use Them for their own selfish reasons. Do we try to use God for our own purposes sometimes too? Because we faithfully go to mass every week … are we sometimes tempted to think that God owes it to us? To answer our prayers and give us what we want?
Sometimes people act like teenagers who do not really want to spend time with their parents, but only come to them when they need money or the car keys. Kids often try to manipulate their parents to get what they want too, but parents usually see right through them. God is the same way with us too. It would be far better to spend time with God in prayer, and Jesus at mass and adoration, than to keep asking Him for things all the time. Good parents, spouses, other family members and friends are more apt to do things for you if you have a good relationship with them … but even then they shouldn’t be expected to do so.
The bottom line is that we don’t like to be used by other people … and neither does God. Maybe today, we could just spend some time in the Lord’s presence in prayer, at mass, or in adoration, and not go through our “laundry list” of wants or needs for once. Just try to enjoy his company. Show him that we love the Giver of the gifts … more than his gifts!
