2 Sam 12:7-10, 13 / Galatians 2:16, 19-21 / Luke 7:36 – 8:3
Most of us know what the flag of Israel looks like. For those of us who have been on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, we would have seen the flag.
It is quite a simple flag – two blue stripes at the top and bottom against a white background, to symbolize the stripes on a tallit, the traditional Jewish prayer shawl.
And in the middle, between the two blue stripes is the six-pointed Star of David, or the Shield of David.
Needless to say, the “David” that is referred to is king David in the Bible, so it might be necessary to know a bit of the Bible in order to know who this king David was.
But even without referring to the Bible, we would have heard stories about king David in our early catechism classes.
For example, we would have heard of the story of the battle between David and Goliath, and how the young David overcame the giant and heavily armed Goliath with just a sling and a stone.
So never underestimate the simple and humble.
And it was king David who united Israel as a nation and he brought about the golden age of Israel, as Israel became a wealthy and mighty nation under his rule.
But the glory of king David also had a terrible blemish and it went into the pages of the Bible.
It was not just a terrible blemish; it was a hideous sin, and it was what we heard in the 1st reading.
In summary, he committed adultery with Bathsheba, and when he found out that she was pregnant, he tried to make her husband Uriah the Hittite to take responsibility, and when he failed, he schemed to have him struck down in battle.
It was an atrocious sin, and when the prophet Nathan confronted him, king David could have just silenced him and do away with him. But that would, of course, add sin upon sin.
But this is where king David came to his senses and realized that God knows what he had done.
He could only say: I have sinned against the Lord.
But that was enough to bring about God’s forgiveness. David only had to openly admit to his guilt and God was all ready to forgive David.
In the gospel, we heard about a woman who had a bad name in the town, coming before Jesus with an alabaster jar of ointment. She waited behind Him at His feet, weeping, and her tears fell on His feet, and she wiped them away with her hair and she covered His feet with kisses and anointed them with the ointment.
She did not say anything but her actions showed that she was confessing her sins to Jesus, and she was forgiven. Jesus understood that by her actions, she was asking for forgiveness and it was granted to her.
So high and mighty king David and the despised and lowly woman in the gospel made an outward confession of their sin.
And this outward confession of sin is necessary in order to obtain the mercy and forgiveness of God.
As the Responsorial Psalm puts it: But now I have acknowledged my sins; my guilt I did not hide. I said “I will confess my offence to the Lord.” And you, Lord, have forgiven the guilt of my sin.
There is this story of a little boy visiting his grandparents was given his first catapult. He practiced in the woods, but he could never hit his target.
As he came back to Grandma’s back yard, he noticed her pet duck. On an impulse he took aim and let fly. The stone hit the duck, and the duck fell dead.
The boy panicked. Desperately he hid the dead duck in the wood pile, only to look up and see his sister watching. Sally had seen it all, but she said nothing.
After lunch that day, Grandma said, “Sally, let’s wash the dishes.” But Sally said, “Johnny told me he wanted to help in the kitchen today. Didn’t you Johnny?” And she whispered to him, “Remember the duck!” So Johnny did the dishes.
Later, Grandpa asked if the children wanted to go fishing.
Grandma said, “I’m sorry, but I need Sally to help me make supper.” Sally smiled and said, “That’s all taken care of. Johnny wants to do it.” Again she whispered, “Remember the duck.” So Johnny stayed while Sally went fishing.
After several days of Johnny doing both his chores and Sally’s, finally he couldn’t take it anymore. He confessed to Grandma that he’d killed the duck.
“I know, Johnny,” she said, giving him a hug. “I was standing at the window and saw the whole thing. Because I love you, I forgave you. But I wondered how long more you would let Sally make a slave of you.”
Yes, sin makes us a slave of our guilt, and the trouble is that we try to cover up one sin with another and we get chained up and dragged down by our sins.
But by confessing our guilt, God forgives us and frees us from our sin so that we can be at peace with God, with others and with ourselves.
That is what happens at the Sacrament of Reconciliation. We confess our sins, and Jesus forgives us and frees us from our sin so that we can have peace within.
Our guilt would make us want to hide our sin, but we must know that we can’t hide anything from God.
On the contrary, we find refuge in God as the Responsorial Psalm puts it: You are my hiding place, O Lord; You save me from distress.
Let us confess our sins, so that we can have peace within.