Journal
1754 L Sun 25 Nov 2001
The feast of Christ the King was celebrated today. The first reading is from 2 Samuel 5:1-3
All the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron. 'Look' they said 'we are your own flesh and blood. In days past when Saul was our king, it was you who led Israel in all their exploits; and the Lord said to you, "You are the man who shall be shepherd of my people Israel, you shall be the leader of Israel."' So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and King David made a pact with them at Hebron in the presence of the Lord, and they anointed David king of Israel.
David is the Lord's anointed. But the Bible does not depict him as free from error or sin, such as with Bathsheba. Nevertheless he is the king. The kings of the line of David are exulted in the psalms, such as Psalm 121 used today "There were set the thrones of judgment of the house of David." (Grail translation).
The Catechism presents a similar situation about the ordained ministry:
1550 This presence of Christ in the minister is not to be understood as if the latter were preserved from all human weaknesses, the spirit of domination, error, even sin. The power of the Holy Spirit does not guarantee all acts of ministers in the same way. While this guarantee extends to the sacraments, so that even the minister's sin cannot impede the fruit of grace, in many other acts the minister leaves human traces that are not always signs of fidelity to the Gospel and consequently can harm the apostolic fruitfulness of the Church.
It also draws attention in CCC 907 to what one of the Vatican II documents said
... [lay people] have the right and even at times a duty to manifest to the sacred pastors their opinion on matters which pertain to the good of the Church, and they have the right to make their opinion known to the other Christian faithful ...
We were all standing for the Gloria again today, which was good. However the Communion Song started later than yesterday and there was a "thurible procession" at the beginning and end of the Eucharistic Prayer.
Yesterday I bought a book by Malcolm Gladwell called The Tipping Point. I am about half way through it. The ideas about how changes come about in societies are providing lots of food for thought.
Copyright J.R. Lilburne, 25 November 2001. Bible extract from The Jerusalem Bible.