1 Samuel 8:4-7, 10-22 / Mark 2:1-12 (2020)
There is always some kind of excitement and also anxiety whenever a country goes to the polls to elect the leaders for the country.
It is also a defining moment for those elected as well as for people who are going to decide who will be the leaders for the government of the country.
In the 1st reading, it was certainly a defining moment for the people of Israel, and more so in their relationship with God.
They asked Samuel to give them a king to rule over them. But that was not all. They want a king to rule over them, just like the other nations.
And to be just like the other nations, the people were willing to give the king so much authority, despite Samuel's warnings.
In doing so, they have rejected God from ruling over them.
Yes it was a defining political moment for the people of Israel, and in their relationship with God.
Yet as time went on, it was the king who abused his authority and even led the people away from God.
But in the gospel, Jesus showed what the authority of God was all about.
God's authority is used for forgiveness and healing. God's authority is always an authority of love.
So whenever we have to make choices and decisions, let us always choose the way of God which must be discerned in prayer.
Let us submit to God's authority and live the way of love.