Reading the texts of the Bible can stir up our imagination, or our memory… or both!
The 1st reading of this 7th Sunday brought to my mind, as an echo, a saying that people sometimes use.
People whose interpretation of truth and honesty is rather… stretching to the point of falsehood and dishonesty…
You can hear them say:
“Not seen,
Not caught,
Not guilty.”
What we see in the text of the 1st book of Samuel is exactly the opposite (1 Samuel 26:2,7-9,12-13,22-23).
Saul is searching for David because he has planned to kill him.
When, at nighttime, Saul is sleeping, David could easily take the life of his persecutor.
He has the occasion,
He has the power,
He has the means.
The text says:
“No one saw,
No one knew about it,
No one woke up.”
But David spares the life of the one he recognizes as “the Lord’s anointed.”
David was aware that, in fact, someone saw and someone knew: God himself!
David was living his life in faithfulness to this God.
A God whose gaze is perhaps demanding and challenging but also supportive and sustaining.
Would this be… YOUR God?
Note: Another reflection on a different theme is available in French at: https://image-i-nations.com/7e-dimanche-de-lannee-c-2022/