Sometimes it seems to me the potential double life of prominent figures has been largely ignored. On the contrary, 2 Samuel 11, a Mass reading for today, reveals the self serving use of power on King David's part. When I think of my own father, I wish that he had had insight that the 'king' might have such a life. People who have been traumatized in an important relationship in their lives tend to choose people with faults I think because they need to persist in their hostility. I don't know if that was a part of it. Along the lines of knowing what the ruler wants, Ann Cooper has a fascinating story passed down in her family. The story is that one of her ancestors carried Queen Elizabeth's message to the effect that Mary Queen of Scots should be killed and she was. That having happened Queen Elizabeth sent forces to arrest her ancestor and he fled to America. Perhaps he was too ready to believe the surface representation of the Queen.
2 Samuel can also be felt as a forgiveness for the Shoah. The authorities in Western culture abandoned the Jews to the forces of the enemy and they were destroyed as Uriah, deliberately put in danger by David, was abandoned and killed. Yet when David sad to Nathan, "I have sinned against the Lord," Nathan answered David "The Lord on his part has forgiven you your sin, you shall not die."
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