The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today present folklore and a symbolic feast to contemplate how we live out our commitment to attend to the Will of God as modeled by Mary.
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| Enjoy the feast |
The reading from the Book of Judges describes the tragic consequence of Jephthah’s imprudent vow.
* [11:30–40] Jephthah’s rash vow and its tragic consequences reflect a widespread folklore motif, most familiar in the Greek story of Iphigenia and her father, Agamemnon. The sacrifice of children was strictly forbidden by Mosaic law (Lv 18:21; 20:2–5), and when the biblical writers report its occurrence, they usually condemn it in strong terms (2 Kgs 16:3; 21:6; Jer 7:31; 19:5). In this case, however, the narrator simply records the old story, offering no comment on the acceptability of Jephthah’s extreme gesture. The story may have been preserved because it provided an explanation of the custom described in vv. 39–40 according to which Israelite women mourned Jephthah’s daughter annually in a four-day ceremony.1
Psalm 40 declares obedience is better than sacrifice.
* [40:7–9] Obedience is better than sacrifice (cf. 1 Sm 15:22; Is 1:10–20; Hos 6:6; Am 5:22–25; Mi 6:6–8; Acts 7:42–43 [quoting Am 5:25–26]). Heb 10:5–9 quotes the somewhat different Greek version and interprets it as Christ’s self-oblation.2
The Gospel from Matthew shares the consequence of not fulfilling our commitment to change through the Parable of the Wedding Feast.
* [22:11] A wedding garment: the repentance, change of heart and mind, that is the condition for entrance into the kingdom (Mt 3:2; 4:17) must be continued in a life of good deeds (Mt 7:21–23).3
Eileen Burke-Sullivan, on the Memorial of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary, connects our invitation to the wedding banquet where Jesus marries humanity to the “yes” of Mary that models our call to live in accord with the Will of God.
This is what it means to truly be a member of God’s ecclesia – God’s Church, over which Mary reigns as Queen and model. My – our – wedding garment will be the truth of our prayer: “Behold, I come! To do your will is my desire.” When any of us practices the real meaning of this prayer we are united with God in eternal joy and peace – here and now! And, YES, hereafter – for eternity. This is a wedding song I want to sing and sing again!4
Don Schwager quotes “A guest with no wedding garment,” by John Chrysostom (347-407 AD).
"But since you have already come into the house of the marriage feast, our holy church, as a result of God's generosity, be careful, my friends, lest when the King enters he find fault with some aspect of your heart's clothing. We must consider what comes next with great fear in our hearts. But the king came in to look at the guests and saw there a person not clothed in a wedding garment. What do we think is meant by the wedding garment, dearly beloved? For if we say it is baptism or faith, is there anyone who has entered this marriage feast without them? A person is outside because he has not yet come to believe. What then must we understand by the wedding garment but love? That person enters the marriage feast, but without wearing a wedding garment, who is present in the holy church. He may have faith, but he does not have love. We are correct when we say that love is the wedding garment because this is what our Creator himself possessed when he came to the marriage feast to join the church to himself. Only God's love brought it about that his only begotten Son united the hearts of his chosen to himself. John says that 'God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son for us' (John 3:16)." (excerpt from FORTY GOSPEL HOMILIES 38.9)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on Judges 11:29-39 reminds us just because this story is in the Bible, that doesn’t mean God approved of Jephthah’s actions. Child sacrifice, although practiced in ancient times, was never accepted by God.
Jephthah’s story is a chilling example of the chaotic nature of this time in Israel’s history. Moses and Joshua were gone, and the tribes of Israel struggled to remain faithful to the God who had brought them to the Promised Land. Without a leader, the people “did what was right in their own eyes” (Judges 17:6; see 21:25). The culture that surrounded them chipped away at their tradition and their moral compass. In the end, they tolerated many practices of the surrounding pagan nations, including child sacrifice.6
Friar Jude Winkler recalls the use of etiology in the Bible to explain a mystery beyond our understanding. It was customary to provide wedding garments for your guests at the time of the parable. Friar Jude reminds that the symbol of donning a wedding garment is our commitment to continue to change, becoming more Christlike.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, refers to “Choosing Peace: The Catholic Church Returns to Gospel Nonviolence, ed. Marie Dennis (Orbis Books: 2018), 230-231” as he is grateful that Christianity is finally becoming much more universal in its teaching, more effective in its action, and just more honest about Jesus.
One reason for our failure to understand Jesus’ clear teaching on nonviolence lies in the fact that the Gospel has primarily been expounded by a small elite group of educated European and North American men. The bias of white males is typically power and control. From this perspective nonviolence and love of enemies makes no sense whatsoever.
Because we Christians haven’t taken Jesus’ teaching and example seriously, much of the world refuses to take us seriously. “Christians love to talk of a new life,” critics say, “but the record shows that you are afraid to live in a new way—a way that is responsible, caring, and nonviolent. Even the common ‘pro-life movement’ is much more pro-birth than about caring for all life—black and brown lives, refugees, the poor, the sick, immigrants, LGBTQIA people, the environment.” In fact, many “pro-lifers” I know are the first in line to oppose any gun regulation.7
Mary becomes our model for selfless surrender to the will of God that is marked by peace, prudence, and love.
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