Daily word, 22 Aug 19

Memorial of Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary (22 Aug 2019)

Judg 11. 29-39a; Ps 40; Mt 22. 1-14

Homily of Fr. Paul Panaretos, S.J., 8-day directed retreat

Measuring with God

Mary received word that she would mother the Eternal God into the world. Her child would be an heir to David, Israel’s revered king. In the long tradition of the church the mother-son connection has made Mary, queen-mother—to use a title more familiar to us.

The flow of the scriptures reminds us that no earthly assembly, even with superb leadership, is perfect. Jesus told his parable of the wedding feast to leaders who opposed him. Ongoing response and renewal are the essence of openness to God’s dream for creation. Living in sync with God’s dream for creation is a process; it is not a finished result. Mary lived its process: the way she lived it is our model.

The story of Jephthah’s vow is not our model. We recoil that he carried through and made his daughter a burnt offering. Jephthah’s story is imperfection in capital letters. Vows are sacred words; Jephthah only had his word in his culture of honour and shame. Because we do not inhabit his culture it is difficult to appreciate. Although it cannot satisfy our moral outrage, Jephthah was not without feeling: he tore his clothes [the most striking expression of grief] and said, “Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low, and [by coming outside first]you have become the cause of great trouble to me. For I have opened my mouth to the Eternal, and I cannot take back my vow.”

How was it that Jephthah could not take back his vow? It won’t satisfy our moral outrage but it may shed light on him: Jephthah was the son of a prostitute. That defined his future. His half-brothers drove him away, “You shall not have an inheritance in our father’s house, for you are the son of another woman.” Mighty though he was he left and worthless fellows gathered around him.

The people Israel came to him and his band desperate for help to defend them in war.¹ Though the spirit of the Eternal was on Jephthah he did not know the God who forbade human sacrifice.² When his negotiations to prevent war failed,³ Jephthah made his vow.

Recoil at Jephthah’s decision we do because Christ let us see that the honour-shame measure is not the only measure. Though we imperfectly live our Christian measure, our vocation to interact with others and creation with greater sensitivity, care and compassion, Christ always welcomes us. Welcoming Christ Jesus and his measure is our lifelong process. One never perfectly attains it. Rather, we stretch to let the measure by which God measures be our measure. Open to God’s dream for creation and deepening our relationship with God help us measure with our triune God.

___________

1. Judges 11.1-7.
2. Leviticus 18.21; Deuteronomy 18.10.
3. Judges 11.12-18.

___________

Wiki-images by: Chris Light Mary, Mother of Jesus, Trinity Heights. CC BY-SA 4.0