The story of Israel’s redemption and walking into Nationhood and onwards to the Promised Land was a great wonder, and everyone knew it was an action of God. They walked through the blood of the Red Sea into freedom. The Amalekites tried to end them even as they left Egypt and journeyed towards Sinai. The Moabites tied to cast a spell on them and reduce them. The pagan inhabitants of the Promised Land saw them crossing the Jordan, without wetting their feet; walking on the dry Jordan River Bed. They knew the power of the Ark of the Covenant, because they say Jericho destroyed, without lifting a sword.
That is the background to today’s Reading. This is the reason the Philistinians were terrified on knowing the Ark of the Covenant had entered the battlefield. But alas, the Israelites had come to treat it like a lucky charm. The relationship by and large, with the one who was resident of the Ark of the Covenant was missing. The Ark was a means to an end for the majority of the Israelites. The Chief Priest Eli had subsided in his service of Yahweh. His Sons; Hophni and Phinehas, who would have succeeded their father, had grown corrupt, because they exploited their positions as Priests of the Tabernacle of Yahweh.
The Israelites entered into battle without consulting Yahweh, and when they were loosing they wanted the Ark to be brought into their midst and they wanted victory over their enemies. It was not to be. God does not act according to our whims and fancies. Nor is His choices influenced by the way we think. His actions are greased with Mercy and Love, for everyone, friend and foe alike.
We see Jesus in the Gospel Reading, mindful of His humanity, and the grace of being able to do healings and miracles. A leper approaches Him with His plight, and Jesus heals him. He could have just said to him to go in peace – for He was God incarnate, but Jesus is mindful of His relationship with God, and seeks to bring glory to Yahweh in everyway. He advises the former leper, to do what Moses had advised be done in such cases, be certified by the High Priest of being cured by God of ones infirmities.
Things around in this world are going all crazy, we don’t know how good can triumph in conditions that are all around us. The World teaches, fight them or join them. But that is not the way of God. We first need to know who our God is – a good, just, all powerful and peace loving God. The conviction of this is acquired by diligently sitting before God, listening to Him and learning about Him from His word – the Bible. That is the time we will realise we ourselves have become the Ark of God’s Presence, just like Mary our Mother.