Beyond What We Hear
What the Lectionary Leaves Unsaid
Feb 5, 2026 - Thursday, Memorial of Saint Agatha, Virgin and Martyr
1 Kings 2:1-4, 10-12
Today’s reading sounds simple.
An old king is dying. Power is being handed over. A father speaks to his son.
“Be strong,” David tells Solomon. “Walk in God’s ways. Keep the commandments. If you do this, your reign will last.”
It sounds clean. Orderly. Almost comforting.
But the Bible is rarely that neat.
There is a part of the story we do not hear at Mass.
Right after encouraging Solomon to follow God, David gives him a second set of instructions— quiet, strategic, unsettling.
He names people who must be dealt with. Old enemies. Unfinished business. Blood that still cries out.
The liturgy leaves this out.
Not because it is unimportant, but because it is uncomfortable.
David is not only a man of faith. He is also a man of memory. And not all memories are healed.
He remembers who hurt him, who betrayed him, who cursed him when he was weakest.
And yet—David is not only a man of resentment.
He also remembers kindness.
He tells Solomon to honor Barzillai, the man who fed him and stood by him when he was running for his life.
The same king who cannot forget betrayal also refuses to forget loyalty.
This is why the Bible matters.
Not because its heroes are perfect, but because they are painfully human.
If we only hear selected passages, we might think faith is simple, leaders are pure, and the past is easily resolved.
But when we read the wider story, we see something truer:
Faith grows in tension. Power reveals the heart. And even God’s chosen ones carry light and shadow together.
That is why the Church gives us the lectionary— but also invites us to go beyond it.
To open the Bible ourselves. To wrestle. To question. To notice what is missing.
Because God does not meet us only in polished readings and safe summaries.
God meets us in the full story— where grace and failure stand side by side.
And maybe that is where our own story finally begins to make sense too.
Scripture Attribution
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993
the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of
Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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© 2025 Krakus.
Licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0 (Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial).