Fourth Sunday of Lent, Cycle A
1 SAMUEL 16, 1-13
The Lord said to Samuel:
“How long will you mourn for Saul, after I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.”
Samuel did what the Lord commanded and went to Bethlehem. He consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice. When they arrived, he saw Eliab and thought:
“Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him.”
But the Lord said to Samuel:
“Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
Jesse made his seven sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said:
“The Lord has not chosen these.”
And Samuel said to Jesse:
“Are all your sons here?”
And he said:
“There remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep.”
Then Samuel said to Jesse:
“Send and fetch him, for we will not sit down till he comes here.”
And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome.
And the Lord said:
“Arise, anoint him, for this is he.”
Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward.
This passage from the first book of Samuel is part of the tradition of the divine election of the least worthy in the eyes of men. It is about seeking a new king, since Saul has proved unworthy and has been rejected by the Lord.
The Prophet Samuel seeks the one chosen by God, who turns out to be the last, the least appreciated by all. The election of God is never due to the merits of man. This is a theme constantly present in Scripture. Paul will develop this theme extensively in the first chapter of the first letter to the Corinthians.
EPHESIANS 5, 8-14
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.
Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord, taking no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead exposing them.
For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret, but when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light.
Therefore it says:
“Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
The text develops a beautiful symbolism: you were darkness, your works were works of the blind, you were sterile, now you are light.
The light exposes what is sterile, what is dirty.
Now you are illuminated by the light of Christ. Before you were asleep, now you have awakened to the light.
José Enrique Galarreta, S.J.