From: 2 Samuel 12:7-10, 13
David’s Repentance (continued)
[13] David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” And Nathan said
to David, “The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die.
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Commentary:
12:1-25. Nathan’s intervention (vv. 1-15), David’s repentance (vv. 16-19), and the
birth of Solomon (vv. 20-25) are the main subjects in this chapter. Nathan makes
an appeal to David with one of the most beautiful parables in the Old Testament
and gets the king to condemn his own conduct: “the man who has done this de-
serves to die” (v. 5). In reply, Nathan tells him the penalty the Lord has decreed,
which in line with the law of vengeance or retaliation has three parts to it, corres-
ponding to David’s triple crime—murder, adultery and the fact that the victim was
a blameless man. On account of the murder, the sword will not depart from Da-
vid’s house (V. 10): this punishment will affect his eldest sons, Amnon, Absalom
and Adonijah, who will die violent deaths. For the adultery, his wives will be vio-
lated in public (v. 11), which will happen when Absalom takes his father’s harem
(cf. 16:20-23). And for the killing of an innocent man, his own recently born son
will not survive (v. 14).
David’s repentance is exemplary (vv. 16-19): he weeps for his sin, and fasts and
pleads for his little son: so, in spite of his weaknesses and sins, he still trusts
in the Lord and shows himself to be “a man after (the Lord’s) own heart” (1 Sam
13:14). David is a model of penance because, by acknowledging his sin, he ob-
tained divine forgiveness. His repentance finds expression in Psalm 51, which
so beautifully and piously records the sinful king’s supplication to the Lord:
“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to
your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from
my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!” (Ps 51:1-2).
The birth of a new son (vv. 20-25) brings this account to an end and makes it
clear that Solomon was born within marriage; his birth causes David great joy
and he is given a second name in a message from Nathan—”Jedidiali” (v. 25);
beloved of the Lord. This means that, from birth, Solomon is the one chosen
by God to advance his plan of salvation for Israel.
Great was David’s sin, and heartfelt his contrition. But God’s forgiveness is grea-
test of all. “In the course of its history, Israel was able to discover that God had
only one reason to reveal himself to theirs, a single motive for choosing them
from among all peoples as his special possession—his sheer gratuitous love.
And thanks to the prophets Israel understood that it was again out of love that
God never stopped saving them and pardoning their unfaithfulness and sins”
(”Catechism of the Catholic Church”, 218).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
From: Galatians 2:16, 19-21
Peter and Paul at Antioch (continued)
[19] For I through the law died to the law, that I might live to God. [20] I have been
crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the
life I know live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave
himself for me. [21] I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification were through
the law, then Christ died to no purpose.
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Commentary:
16. “All that shadowy observance”, St Augustine comments, “had to cease in
an unnoticed way, gradually, as the pace grew of the wholesome preaching of
the grace of Christ […], during the lifetime of that generation of Jews who had ex-
perienced the physical presence of our Lord and had lived through the apostolic
times. This sufficed to make it clear that those practices were not to be deemed
hateful or idolatrous. But neither were they to be kept up any longer than that, in
case people might hold them to be necessary, as if salvation came from them or
could not be obtained without them” (Letter 82, II, 15).
We might say that there are three periods in observance of the prescriptions of
the Law. In the first period, prior to Christ’s passion, the precepts of the Law were
“alive”, that is, it was obligatory to keep them. A second period was between the
Passion and the spread of apostolic preaching: the Law’s precepts were already
“dead”, no longer obligatory, but there were not “lethal”: Jewish converts could
keep them provided that they did not rely on them, for Christ was already the ba-
sis of their hope. In the third stage, in which we find ourselves, observance of Je-
wish precepts as a means of salvation amounts to denying the redemptive power
of Christ and therefore they could be termed “lethal” (cf. St Thomas Aquinas,
Commentary on Gal, ad loc.).
St Augustine uses a very interesting comparison: with the arrival of faith in Christ
the old “sacraments” of the Law come to resemble the dead – who merit respect
and honour. They should be interred with all the necessary ritual, religiously, re-
verently. They should not be thrown out, to be devoured by predators. But if a
Christian now wants to keep them in force “disturbing the ashes which lie at rest,
he would not be a pious son or a relative who keeps vigil at the grave, but an im-
pious profaner of tombs” (Letter 82, ibid.).
19-20. Through the sacrament of Baptism we have been united to Christ in a un-
ion which far exceeds mere solidarity of feeling: we have been crucified with him,
dying with him to sin, so as to rise reborn into a new life (cf. note on Rom 6: 3-8).
This new life requires us to live in a new, supernatural way, which with the help
of grace gradually becomes stronger and stronger and acts to perfect man’s be-
haviour: he is no longer living on a purely natural level. “That is why a Christian
should live as Christ lived, making the affections of Christ his own, so that he
can exclaim with St Paul: ‘It is now no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me’
[…] to such an extent that each Christian is not simply alter Christus: another
Christ, but ipse Christus: Christ himself!” (St. J. Escriva, Christ is Passing By,
103 and 104).
The life in Christ which the Apostle is speaking about here is not a matter of fee-
lings: it is something real which grace brings about: “Paul’s soul was in between
God and his body: his body was alive, and moved, thanks to the action of Paul’s
soul; but his soul drew its life from Christ’s action. Therefore, in referring to the
life of the flesh, which he was living, St Paul speaks of ‘the life I now live in the
flesh’; but as far as relationship with God was concerned, Christ it was who was
living in Paul, and therefore he says, ‘I live by faith in the Son of God’: it is he
who lives in me and makes me act” (St Thomas Aquinas Commentary on Gal,
ad loc.). This is why the Apostle goes as far as to say elsewhere, “to me to live
is Christ” (Phil 1:21).
All this is a consequence of Christ’s love: he freely gave himself up to death out
of love for each and every one of us. We, like St Paul, can come to appreciate,
through faith, that Christ’s passion affects us personally. Fro this faith will arise
that love which “has the power to effect union […], which inspires those who love
to leave where they are, and which does not allow them to stay the way they are,
but rather transforms them into the object of their love” (Pseudo-Dionysius, De di-
vinis nominibis, 4). People who are very keen on academic pursuits or on sports
often refer to these things as being “their life”. If someone pursues only his own
interest, he is living for himself. If, on the contrary, he seeks the good of others,
we say that he “lives for others”. Therefore, if we love Jesus and are united to
him, we will live “for” him, “by” him, “through” him. “Do you love the earth?”, St
Augustine exclaims. “You will be earth. Do you love God? What am I to say?
That you will be God? I almost don’t dare to say it, but Scripture says it, ‘You
are gods, sons of the Most High’ (Ps 82:6)” (In Epist. Ioann. ad Parthos, II, 14).
This profound truth should move us to devote ourselves to an asceticism motiva-
ted by love: “Let us hasten, therefore, full of spirit, to the fight, fixing our gaze on
the crucified Jesus, who from the Cross offers us his help and promises us victo-
ry and laurels. If we happened to stumble in the past, it was because we did not
keep before our eyes the wounds and disgrace which our Redeemer suffered and
because we did not seek his help. For the future, let us not cease to keep before
our eyes him who suffered on our account and who is ever-ready to come to our
aid […]; if we do so, we shall surely emerge victorious over our enemies” (St Al-
phonsus Mary Liguori, The Love of Jesus Christ, 3).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.