When that day comes, you will cry out on account of the king you have chosen for yourselves, but on that day God will not answer you.’
Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, ‘My child, your sins are forgiven.’
There are two main points of our scripture, We cannot choose an earthly king, because God has chosen the King for us. It is His choice and not us. We are not in charge, but God is. Jesus is King!
These are two messages today. First and foremost is that God is in charge. We don’t make the rules and forms of government are not a fad. God chose Jesus and we didn’t. The second thing is that if we follow God’s choice, we can receive forgiveness of sins through the Sacrament that Jesus initiated or the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
When I first started at the Post Office in 1980, I worked the graveyard shift. We had 12-hour days on more days than I can remember. My whole life was working and doing laundry on my one day a week that I had off. My entire social and working life was the Post Office. We would get breaks and lunches, and you would gravitate to nice people about your same age. I would go on break with a girl named Cindy and have lunch with her. Before I knew it, we became good friends. However, without me realizing it our relationship became deeper.
One day she came to work with a black eye. She wouldn’t look at me. I was emotionally upset and didn’t understand the depth of my emotional involvement with Cindy. I wanted to protect her and save her, but she was another man’s wife. I couldn’t save her. Well, our relationship never went any farther than friendship, but I could see that I could have easily become a partner in adultery. To be clear I was not married at the time.
Israel at the time of Samuel was under Judges and the will of God. It is funny that God didn’t want the people of Israel to be led by anyone other than Him. Instead, the people wanted to be like other nations and have a king. Ironically, God eventually gave us a King in the form of His Son, Jesus Christ.
Surprise, Jesus gave us His Kingship and a gift. He gave us the Sacrament of Reconciliation. We can only please God in the State of Grace, and we have the opportunity to increase His pleasure in us by receiving the Sacrament as often as possible. We are only human. We sin and sometimes we are sinning before we even know it. We need to have the reinforcement of this sacrament to strengthen our resolve.
God Love You Always
Bob Burford
PS: Please Pray for Pope Leo XIV. Please Pray for Cancer victims and their caregivers. Pray for the conversion of Russia and the salvation of the Ukrainian and Russian people and their soldiers. Pray for the Holy Land. Pray for peace! The impossible could and can happen. (Saint Rita) Never deny God! Pray for justice for immigrants! Pray for justice for our President and all government officials!
