Singularity and Conformity

Homily for Friday of the First Week in Ordinary TIme

The Hebrew word for “holy” literally means “other than,” or “set apart from.” Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, we hear God say: “Be holy as I, your God, am holy.” A newspaper columnist once wrote to the effect that if you let people do what they want, they end up imitating each other. This is particularly evident in fashion. The length of one’s skirt or the width of one’s tie is dictated by what we see around us.

In today’s Scripture text from the First Book of Samuel, the Israelites ask Samuel to appoint a king to rule over them. Their reasoning is that because their neighbors all have kings, they to wish to have a king to govern them. Israel had been governed by judges up to this point, but now they want a king like everyone else. It suggests for us the basis of singularity and conformity.

Our faith, our conscience at times requires some singularity of behavior on our part. Everyone knows how difficult that is when faced with a bit of contrary pressure from friends and neighbors. Though theoretically most of us are free to act as we think right, we are battered on the other side by a strong desire to fit in, to not stand out. Ideally in our own lives we would allow what God asks of us in our particular situation and with our specific capabilities to dictate what we do.

Instead of looking over our shoulder to see what the trends are, we should look within to know what God asks of us in the present moment in our life. Throughout the Christian Scriptures, we are exhorted to conform ourselves to Christ rather than to modern culture or society. However, this is somewhat different because conforming ourselves to Christ means looking within to discern our particular talents and the particular graces with which we have been blessed. Christ asks us to use those particular talents and graces as we imitate him and walk in his footsteps.

Samuel tries to dissuade the Israelites by telling them what will happen if they appoint a king. The list of practices that he recites literally speaks of slavery to the will of their monarch. The only king who rules in our lives is Jesus Christ in whom we find the truth and the way and the life that God asks of us.