Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children [USA]
For a Christian, glory belongs to God alone, and any inclination to glorify oneself is from the evil one. Both our readings today point to this truth.
In the first reading from Samuel, Saul becomes jealous of David because of the song that the Israelite women sing about the two of them: Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands. Jealousy, like a spark to try tinder, ignites a desire in Saul’s heart to harm David, even to kill him, to put an end to their perceived rivalry. Hopefully, we have not gone so far ourselves in jealousy. But even so, who of us has not known jealousy’s bitter taste at some point in life? And all this because Saul wants fame and recognition, because he wants to glorify himself.
Jesus presents a strong contrast to Saul in the Gospel reading. Although his fame spreads for the miracles of healing and exorcism that he works, when the demons proclaim, truthfully, You are the Son of God, Jesus rebukes them. He rebukes them not to deny his identity — Jesus truly is the Son of God — but because, as he says in John’s Gospel, Jesus does not glorify himself (John 8:54), and because the hour in which the Father will glorify Jesus has not yet come (John 2:4). This hour is the hour of Jesus’s passion, in which Jesus receives quite a different glory than the one the demons tempt Jesus to claim for himself.
Today, then, let us ponder our call to give all glory to God alone, asking forgiveness for the ways in which we may be tempted to take glory of ourselves. And let us ask Jesus to make his attitude of humility our own.