Hope amid despair
Through a glass darkly…
Here in Northern California Springtime has brought a lush green beauty to the land that renews the spirit and brings joy to the soul. However, keeping up with human events both far afield and at home is another matter. The ongoing destruction of Ukraine, as well as other conflicts disordering and destroying lives of people from Myanmar to Haiti make reading the news a dreaded daily task. Of all these stories of suffering those in Israel and Gaza have, since October 7th of last year, been the most personally troubling as I have close friends living there.
The underlying issues motivating the outbreak of violence in areas around the world are both varied and specific to each. But it has been one aspect of the work of René Girard to provide a lens through which the chaos of this perennial human behavior can be viewed and placed in the story of fallen humanity’s fundamental religious orientation. The stark choice facing our world depicted in Jesus Christ’s ‘either/or’ (Lk 11:23) and related in the epilogue of Girard’s final book, Battling to the End, provides a crucial challenge to our progressive advanced technological age. Without such a lens one would be tempted to despair. While our hope is grounded in faith granted through Christ and His Church, I am none the less indebted to all who have made René Girard’s work accessible, especially Gil Bailie.
Recently, while reviewing some of Gil Bailie’s online audio presentations I was struck by the Famished Craving talks (circa mid-1990s) in which he mentioned the suicide bombings by Islamic terrorist organizations including Hamas. In part 5 of the series Gil, with the help of Leo Braudy’s book The Frenzy of Renown , the insights of Girard, and a then current New York Times article about the cult of fame surrounding Hamas suicide bombers, describes the idolization of the terrorists by most of the citizens of Gaza and the West Bank. These perpetrators of mass carnage are considered martyrs and are venerated with celebrations, posters, and mementos similar to American sports hero trading cards.
In a typical Gil Bailie juxtaposition, the 17th century dramatic poem, Samson Agonistes, by John Milton is placed alongside the story of the Hamas terrorists. This was grimly confirmed in a recent Jerusalem Post story about the retrieval of the bodies of three Israeli hostages taken by the terrorists on October 7th. One of the Israeli paratroopers involved in this operation while “standing in the rubble outside the building where the bodies of the murdered Israelis were found, said: “We keep on going. It’s hard work but satisfying.” Then, reaching for an appropriate metaphor, he concluded, “It’s an extraordinary feeling to be here, you know. Like Samson, in a way.”
When one finds daily reports like these interspersed with news of pro-Hamas demonstrations at American institutions of higher learning the visage of antisemitism raises its aged and ugly head. The story of Jew hatred is as old as the Book of Esther, in which the attempted annihilation of those Jews who remained in Babylon is thwarted by a young Jewish woman. Alex Lessard has shared a short reflection on this episode below that I encourage you to read.
The Jewish festival of Purim commemorates the survival of the Jews of Babylon through the courage of one young woman in 5th century BCE Persia. While the number and power of those today who wish to rid the world of Israel and the Jews has grown, the survival of the Jews of 21st century Israel will be found in the courage, strength, and dedication of many thousands of men and women who a year ago may have been (and may still be) deeply divided in their political outlook, but yet have found – sometimes to their surprise and dismay – that their identity as Jews is the foundation of their solidarity as Israelis.
God forbid that such an experience as October 7th should come to America…but in fact such already was the case in the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001. Sadly, the solidarity we experienced following that devastating day has dissipated. In the twenty-three years since 9/11 we in America are more deeply divided and, for many, having either drifted away from or consciously rejected any identity offered us in the Judeo-Christian foundations of our culture there is little purchase for us on which to take a stand. Perhaps such will be the case in Israel in twenty years.
Our prayer and hope for us all is for a reawakening of faith in the God who spoke to Abram, and Moses, and through the prophets, who is manifested in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and in the life of His Church. God help us!
Randy Coleman-Riese
“If I perish, I perish.”
A Reading from the Book of Esther
Then Esther told them to reply to Mor′decai, “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.” Mor′decai then went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him.” …
So the king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther. And on the second day, as they were drinking wine, the king again said to Esther, “What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled.” Then Queen Esther answered, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request. For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have held my peace; for our affliction is not to be compared with the loss to the king.” Then King Ahasu-e′rus said to Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, that would presume to do this?” And Esther said, “A foe and enemy! This wicked Haman!” Then Haman was in terror before the king and the queen. And the king rose from the feast in wrath and went into the palace garden; but Haman stayed to beg his life from Queen Esther, for he saw that evil was determined against him by the king. And the king returned from the palace garden to the place where they were drinking wine, as Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was; and the king said, “Will he even assault the queen in my presence, in my own house?” As the words left the mouth of the king, they covered Haman”s face. Then said Harbo′na, one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king, “Moreover, the gallows which Haman has prepared for Mor′decai, whose word saved the king, is standing in Haman’s house, fifty cubits high.” And the king said, “Hang him on that.” So they hanged Haman on the gallows which he had prepared for Mor′decai. Then the anger of the king abated.
Reflection
The Book of Esther recounts Esther’s humble faith and brave petition to save her people from annihilation in Babylon – heroic deeds celebrated ever since by Jews in the festival of Purim.
Esther was an exceedingly “beautiful and lovely” orphan raised by her cousin Mordecai during the Persian rule over Babylon. The events chronicled begin about 55 years after the Persian King Cyrus the Great had allowed Jews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. Many Jews, like Mordecai and Esther, remained in the Persian empire – so they were exiles by choice at that time.
The story opens with Mordecai’s dream that every nation was preparing to fight against the Jews, who feared that they would perish in the onslaught. But then “they cried to God; and from their cry, as though from a tiny spring, there came a great river, with abundant water; light came, and the sun rose, and the lowly were exalted and consumed those held in honor” (Esther 1:10-11).
Prefiguring Mary’s greater exaltation and higher intercessory power, Esther the orphan exile was exalted from her lowly state to that of Queen. This came about in a kind of beauty pageant, with King Xerxes’ servants parading the most beautiful virgins of Persia before him to replace the disobedient and therefore deposed Queen Vashti. Esther did not, however, reveal that she was a Jew.
When Mordecai did not bow down with the other king’s servants before the newly promoted advisor Haman at the king’s command, Haman’s fury immediately escalated beyond punishing Mordecai to wiping out all the Jews in Babylon. He proceeded to lie to the king about the Jews not keeping his laws, and offered to pay 10,000 talents into the treasury if the king would agree to let him destroy the Jews. Herodotus the historian estimated the annual revenue collected by Xerxes’s father King Darius at 14,560 talents, so Haman’s 10,000 talents was a staggering offer from one man. Based on the weight of the Babylonian talent commonly used in Persia, the value of his payment would be over $200M today. This was bloodlust at any price!
In Esther’s anxiety over the planned holocaust, she “fled to the Lord”, humbled herself with ashes and dung in place of her crown, and cried out for God’s help against those who would magnify a mortal king over the divine king. She hated her earthly crown and compared it to a ritually impure rag, for her joy was only in the Lord. She abhorred the splendor of the wicked and the bed of the uncircumcised and the alien – both categories that her husband the king fell into. Mordecai also said three days of humble prayers “in dust and ashes” as they prepared to send Esther before the king to implore his mercy.
Esther’s intercession for her people involved approaching the king unbidden—a potentially fatal action. And that was apart from revealing that she was a Jew. So there was real fear in Esther’s heart as she faced her terrifying king, and it took a complete submission to the will of God to overcome that fear for the sake of her people. She resigned herself even to death, saying: “If I perish, I perish.”
Through a gripping series of revelations and reversals, Haman is hanged instead of Mordecai, and the Jews are saved by the king’s proclamation. Mordecai’s dream is fulfilled and the mighty is consumed by the low-born orphan.
Purim is also called “The Days of Lots” for, similar to the way in which lots were cast to determine which soldiers would get Christ’s garments, lots were cast by Haman to determine the day the Jews would be destroyed by the Persians. The casting of lots here shows us that though events can look like the arbitrary outcomes of chance, God is really writing the story. Esther did not go to Jerusalem because she was born for her time in Babylon, a time that saved her tribe of Benjamin and the 11 other tribes. A time of God’s design and execution, with the humble cooperation of his faithful children.
As we turn from the Old Testament matriarchs to Mary, Daughter, let us reflect on the words of the Catechism, connecting their mission to Mary, the most faithful and obedient child of her son:
“Throughout the Old Covenant the mission of many holy women prepared for that of Mary. At the very beginning there was Eve; despite her disobedience, she receives the promise of a posterity that will be victorious over the evil one, as well as the promise that she will be the mother of all the living. By virtue of this promise, Sarah conceives a son in spite of her old age. Against all human expectation God chooses those who were considered powerless and weak to show forth his faithfulness to his promises: Hannah, the mother of Samuel; Deborah; Ruth; Judith and Esther; and many other women. Mary “stands out among the poor and humble of the Lord, who confidently hope for and receive salvation from him. After a long period of waiting the times are fulfilled in her, the exalted Daughter of Sion, and the new plan of salvation is established.”
