On going through the First Reading of today, one cannot but help wonder at the defeat of the Israelites at the hands of the Philistines even though the Ark of the Lord had been brought to their camp to rescue them from defeat. Why had the Lord let them down?

Actually, when one examines the history of Israel's leaders just before this disaster, one realises that it is not the Lord's failure but the failure of His people that caused the loss, not only of the battle of 1050 B.C., but also of the "glory of the Lord", the Ark of the Covenant.

Israel had lived in peace and prosperity alongside the Philistines for some time, but in the process had absorbed a number of their neighbours' customs and religious practices. The Israelites had begun to lapse from the high morality of a Covenant people. Prophets on the scene, including Samuel, had criticised kings and commoners and warned them of the perils of prosperity, of power and of complacency. It is no wonder then that Israel had to realise that God was speaking to them in their catastrophe of having their promised land wrested from them, teaching them that their mission as a special people of the Covenant was not to be ignored and forgotten. They needed reminding that a secular and materialistic kingdom was not the kingdom He meant them to build. The leper cured by Jesus in Mark's Gospel account needed no reminding.