Week of Prayer for Christian Unity  Day 3

 When king Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him (Mt 2:3)

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊ 

1 Samuel 18:6-9; 19:1-7

When they arrived after David

Had slain the Philistine, the women came out from the cities of Israel to meet king Saul singing and dancing with timbrels and musical instruments. They were merrily singing this song this song: “Saul has slain his thousands, and David, his tens of thousands.”

Saul was very displeased with this song and said, “They have given tens of thousands to David but to me only thousands! By now he has everything but the kingdom!”From then on, Saul became very distrustful of David.

Saul told his son Jonathan and his servants of his intention to kill. David. But Jonathan, who liked David very much, said to David, “My father Saul wants to kill you. Be on your guard tomorrow morning and hide yourself in a secret place.

I will go out and keep my father company in the countryside where you are and I will speak to him about you. if I find out something, I will let you know.” Jonathan spoke well of David to his father Saul and said, “Let not the king sin against his servant David for he has not sinned against you.

On the contrary, what he has done has benefited you. He risked his life killing the Philistine and Yahweh brought about a great victory for Israel. You yourself saw this and greatly rejoiced. Why then sin against innocent blood and kill David without cause?”

Saul heeded Jonathan’s plea and swore, “As Yahweh lives, he shall not be put to death.” So Jonathan called David and told him all these things. He then brought him to Saul and David was back in Saul service as before.

 

Ps 56:2-3, 9-10a, 10b-11, 12-13

In God!i trust; I shall not fear.

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊  

Mark 3:7-12

 Jesus and his disciples withdrew to the lakeside and a large crowd from Galilee followed him. A great number of people also came from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, Trans­jordan and from the region of Tyre and Si­don, for they had heard of all that he was doing.

 Because of the crowd, Jesus told his disciples to have a boat ready for him, to prevent the people from crush­ing him. He healed so many that all who had diseases kept pressing towards him to touch him. Even the people who had evil spirits, when­ever they saw him, would fall down before him and cry out, “You are the Son of God.” But he warned them sternly not to tell anyone who he was.

 

Man With a Pure Heart

Jonathan is a gem of a person who needs to be rediscovered for our times. He was the son of the king. If he had harboured thoughts of becoming the next king, no one would have blamed him.

Thus, David’s popularity should have been all the more threatening to Jonathan’s own future than to the present of his dad, Saul. But we find Jonathan delighting in the victory of David, recognizing the evil in his father’s heart, and defending David before Saul.

There is no envy, no jealousy, no selfishness; Only pure love, friendship, and delightful justice and fairness. If Jesus were to meet him on earth, he would have said – as he observed when he saw Nathanael: “Here is a true human being in whom there is no malice.” Blessed are the pure of heart, for in them we shall see God.