You are the man

We can all be moralistic spectators sometimes: people who sit back and denounce the evil we see.

It is easy for us to do that when we have dedicated ourselves to God and have educated ourselves in what is right and what is wrong.

King David does the same in today’s first reading (2 Samuel 12:1-7a, 10-17).

He of course has a very special relationship with God and knows much of God’s ways, so he would seem even better qualified to denounce the man in the story.

Then Nathan said to David:
You are the man!

In saying “You are the man” Nathan, of course, is not acclaiming David’s greatness in the way some use that phrase today (or its abbreviated form: “You da man”).

He means that the man whom David had denounced is really David himself.

So too God may say to us when we denounce someone who is a sinner.

You are the man!

You are that sinner.

(Miserere mei, Domine)

It is easy to see the sins and faults of others, but it is a matter of life and death that in doing so we do not overlook our own.

It is likewise easy to quickly assume that a particular denunciation or warning in Scripture does not apply to us (because of different circumstances, yadda yadda yadda), but we always run the deadly serious risk of overlooking the elements that apply to us.

You are the man!

This is not to say that we should not be honest about evil or that we should not try to help people turn from evil to good.

We are all imperfect, but we must all be honest and must all seek the good (which ultimately comes through faith in Jesus Christ).

Our imperfections do not excuse us from our duty to walk toward perfection while helping others advance along the same path in Christ.

The work of God on this earth is not the task only of the man who is sinless, but also of the man who, through the grace of Christ, faithfully struggles

And you are the man!