Homily: Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time: 2007

Brothers and sisters, am I ever glad our First Reading came up today because it illustrates a perpetual question that arises among good, religious people! And there's a trap there, a danger, in reading too much into it or interpreting it in a certain way. As you all know, David, stricken with lust for Bathsheba, Uriah's wife, committed adultery with her, which resulted in a pregnancy David could not disguise as caused by her husband. To cover his sin and to get his rival out of the way (even though King David already had other wives), he murdered Uriah -- or at least caused his death -- by having him sent to the front lines in the war and then having the troops pull back, exposing and killing him. Now, the things that happened next: the taking of Bathsheba in marriage; King David's repentance -- in light of Nathan's prophecy, his proclaiming of God's word (which is what "prophecy" means), his shining of the light of truth on David's sin; and the subsequent death of the child (a son, but NOT Solomon -- he came later, from those same parents), are the subject of my question. Was my friend, my good-hearted friend right when she said the death of the child thus conceived -- and for whom David grieved -- a direct result of his (and Bathsheba's) sin? She said it was, and related it to our own lives, in which we are forgiven (as was David) but are severely punished. And I think it's a crucial question. I actually think she's wrong, and I'll tell you why. If so, then you could reasonably expect every child of rape would die, and we clearly see that that is not so. Every murderer's child would die. Every fornicator's or adulterer's child would die. And it just doesn't follow. Besides, who would kill the innocent because of the guilty? (We are not talking about a voluntary laying down of a life here, such as might obtain for a good purpose.) No. It's entirely an unfair assumption . . . and I mean "unfair" in every sense of the word.

We cannot determine precisely cause and effect in other's lives as far as sin and its punishment goes. We cannot even tell in our own lives! All we can say is, in general, sickness and death is a result of man's sin . . . since it did not obtain in the Garden of Eden before the Fall. We cannot say that this particular sickness, this particular death is the result of a sin that occurred before it. After all, Jesus Himself said, in answer to the question, "Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?", "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents". (John 9:2) So the death of the child of David cannot be construed as a result of the sin, much as we might like to draw that conclusion. Yes, God it is who grants life and deals death, but we neither know why nor how. All we know is that He does what He does from love. I would even go so far as to say it is probably better that we don't know why and how. Why do some die young and some live to a ripe old age? Why are some so physically and financially blessed and others not? Well, listen to the very "Book of Job"-like response to St. Anthony of the Desert, who thought about the depths of the judgments of God and asked, "Lord, how is it that some die when they are young, while others drag on to extreme old age? Why are there those who are poor and those who are rich? Why do wicked men prosper and why are the just in need?" He heard a voice answering him, "Anthony, keep your attention on yourself; these things are according to the judgments of God, and it is not to your advantage to know anything about them." (Sayings of the Desert Fathers.) So you don't know. You don't even know in your own life. What do you know? You know you have sinned and fallen short of the grace of God. For God's sake, repent -- now -- and throw yourself on His mercy. Go to Confession; here at our church it is available every Saturday from 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm and anytime by appointment. Go, throw yourself on His infinite mercy, and it will be said of you, too: "The Lord has forgiven your sin; you shall not die." (2 Samuel 12:13)

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Let us now profess our faith . . .