Tuesday,1/16/18
Yesterday morning a Catholic
who keeps up with the daily readings asked me why God had told Samuel not to
grieve over the rejection of Saul as king. An odd thing about that question is
that I saw it raised seventy seven years ago.
My class, when we were seventeen, were told to
give a half hour a day to reading from some religious book. That had me picking
up a book of sermons by John Cardinal Newman, and there was one that addressed
the question my friend raised yesterday.
Cardinal Newman wrote that
Saul had taken part in religious activities without ever having his heart in
it. Like, once, before a battle, he was waiting for Samuel to arrive to offer a
sacrifice; and when Samuel didn't come, Saul went through the motions of
offering a sacrifice, while regarding it just as a meaningless rigmarole.
The lesson for us is that we
must approach all religious activities with feelings of love and respect for
God.
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