The crimes of the Commander-in-Chief

The Commander-in-Chief engaged in illicit sexual activity and to cover it up he manipulated an international incident and arranged for the death of a valiantly loyal soldier.

That is what happens in today’s first reading (2 Samuel 11:1-4a, 5-10a, 13-17 - N.B., there is a typo in the citation and link on the USCCB page. Here is the right link.), as King David impregnates a soldier’s wife and arranges for the soldier to be killed.

(The first verse of this passage contains a classic phrase, translated gloriously in the Douay-Rheims version as “when kings go forth to war” but rendered dully by the Lectionary as “when kings go out on campaign.”)

You and I, of course, are probably not kings or national leaders, but in our own ways we can be faced with the same temptations as King David: sudden opportunities to indulge in sinful pleasure and desperate desires to avoid the consequences of our sins, no matter what we have to do or who gets hurt.

By the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, may we always keep our minds and our hearts focused on the paths of righteousness, wherein we find the greatest joys and the most lasting happiness.