First Reading - 1 Samuel 24:3-21
Gospel - Mark 3:13-19
The first reading reveals the nobility of David in sparing Saul whom God gave in his hand. David was on a run because of Saul who wanted to kill him. Saul was in search of David and came to the cave to rest where David had hidden himself. Saul was lying right in front of him but he restrained from raising his hand against the Lord's anointed. David manifests his loyalty to God and his king by sparing the life of Saul. He didn't harm him and strictly warned his men not to harm Saul, the anointed one by God but to confirm his loyalty to the king he cut off the border of Saul's cloak. Saul, after knowing the whole story, admitted the nobility of David and blessed him.
The gospel passage narrates the call of the twelve. Jesus calls the twelve to himself - to be with him and be sent out to preach the good news and are empowered to cast out devils. The apostles enjoyed a great privilege to be with Jesus and to learn from him followed by their apostolic mission of evangelisation of the good news and vesting of power to cast out devils or vanquish the dominion of evil in the world.
Dear friends, by the very fact we are baptized we become the followers of Jesus. However, today we are challenged by the readings to become loyal followers of Jesus. The nobility of loyalty is depicted by David who was loyal to God and his king that's why, though he could easily kill the king but withheld from doing so because he understood the value of Saul's being anointed by God. Realizing the sacredness of Saul's anointing, he overcame his attitude of vengeance. He showed the example of being loyal to God and the king by sparing Saul. We are to learn from David to realise the sacredness of our call as the disciples of Jesus and remain loyal to him. The gospel teaches us that we can remain loyal to Jesus by being willing to be with him, learning from him or being taught in the school of Jesus like the apostles. Jesus teaches us through the Sacred Scriptures and the Magisterium. Let's listen to him.
However, there is also a danger of being disloyal to Jesus like Judas Iscariot who was with Jesus but was not changed because of his worldly concerns rather than the concerns of Jesus about the kingdom. We can also become disloyal disciples of Jesus if we don't allow ourselves to be taught by Jesus or when the worldly concerns overcome us and become priority of our lives, as a result we can also betray Jesus like Judas Iscariot.
Let's pray that the worldly concerns may not lead us astray from Jesus that we may remain loyal to him always.
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