REFLECTION:

One of my philosophy professors once said something that has stayed with me over the years: “We shouldn’t listen to athletes and what they recommend us to do, because they have no contribution to society as a whole.” It sounded harsh at first, but his point was not really about athletes. It was about something deeper: how easily we let popularity, fame, and cultural trends shape our values and decisions, instead of asking what is truly good, true, and faithful.

In today’s first reading from 1 Samuel, we see that same temptation at work. The elders of Israel come to Samuel and say, “Give us a king to govern us—like all the other nations.” On the surface, their request seems reasonable. Samuel is old. His sons are corrupt. The future feels uncertain. They want stability, security, and leadership they can see.

But God reveals what is really happening: “It is not you they reject—they are rejecting me as their king.”

Their request is not just political—it is spiritual. They no longer want to be different. They no longer want to trust in God. They want to be like everyone else.

Isn’t this one of the deepest struggles of the human heart?

So often, we measure our lives by what everyone else is doing, what everyone else has, what everyone else says is important. Slowly and almost without noticing it, we let the world tell us what matters, and we begin to shape our lives around fitting in rather than standing firm in faith.

God tells Samuel to warn the people what this king will do: he will take their sons and daughters, take their land, take their labor, take their freedom. In other words, the king they want will take—but God is the One who gives. Yet even after hearing this, the people insist: “No! We still want a king.” And then comes the telling reason: “So that we may be like the other nations.”

That line should make us pause.

How often do we trade trust in God for something more visible and controllable? How often do we choose what is popular over what is faithful? How often do we want to blend in rather than belong to God?

This is where the reading touches the heart of our Christian life. The call to holiness is precisely this: not to be like everyone else, but to be God’s. Holiness does not mean being strange or better than others. It means letting our lives be shaped by God rather than by the world. It means choosing faithfulness over convenience, truth over trends, and trust over control.

Jesus shows us what true kingship and true holiness look like. He does not come to take, but to give. He does not rule by power, but by love. He does not call us to conform, but to be transformed.

In the end, the question this reading leaves us with is simple and searching: Am I trying to fit in—or am I trying to be holy?

Because God did not create us to be copies of the world. He created us to be saints.