Thursday of the Third Week of Advent 2022

Jesse Tree Story: JUDITH

Jesse Tree Symbol: ARMY TENT

Scripture: "Hearing how the water shortage had demoralized the people and how they had complained bitterly to the headman of the town, and being also told what Wzziah had said to them and how he had given them his oath to surrender the town to the Assyrians in five days time, Judith immediately sent the serving woman who ran her household to summon Chabis and Charmis, two elders of the town.  When these came in, she said, "Listen to me, leaders of the people of Bethulia. You were wrong to speak to the people as you did today and to bind yourself by oath, in defiance of God, to surrender the town to our enemies if the Lord did not come to you help within a set number of days. Who are you, to put God to the test today, you of all people, to set yourselves above Him? You put the Lord Almighty to the test! You do not understand anyting, and never will. If you cannot sound the depths of the human heart or unravel the arguments of the human mind, how can you fathom he God who made all things, or sound His mind or unravel His purpose? No, brothers, do not provoke the anger of the Lord our God. Although it may not be His will to help us within the next five days, He has the power to protect us for as many days as He pleases, just as He has the power to destroy us before our enemies. But you have no right to guarantees where the designs of the Lord our God are concerned. For God is not to be threatened as a human being is, not is He, like a mere human, to be cajoled. Rather, as we wait patiently for Him to save, let us plead with Him to help us. He will hear our voice if such is good pleasure. And indeed of recent times and still today there is not one tribe of ours, or family, or village, or town that has worshipped gods made by human hand, as one has done, which was the reason why our ancestors were delivered over to sword and sack, and perished in misery at the hands of our enemies. We for our part acknowledge no other God but Him; and so we may hope He will not look on us disdainfully or desert our nation. If indeed they capture us, as you expect, then all Judea will be captured too, and our holy places plundered, and we shall answer with our blook for their profanation. The slaughter of our brothers, the captivity of our country, the unpeopling of our heritage, will recoil on our own heads among the nations whose slaves we shall become, and our new masters will look down on us as an outrage and a disgrace; for our surrender will not be reinstate us in their favor; no the Lord our God will make it a thing to be ashamed of. So now, brothers, let us set an example to our brothers, since their lives depend on us, and the sanctuary - Temple and Altar - rests on us. All this being so, let us rather give thanks to the Lord our God who, as He tested our ancestors, is now testing us. Remember how He treated Abraham, all the ordeals of Isaac, all that happened to Jacob in Syrian Mesopotamia while He kept the sheep of Laban, his mother's brother. For as these ordeals were intended by him to search their hearts, so now this is not vengeance that God is exacting on us, but a warning inflicted by the Lord on those who are not near His heart."

Judith 8:9-27

Commentary: Judith killed the leader of the Assyrian army with a sword and saved the Israelite nation.  She prefigured Mary whose "Fiat" brought salvation to all mankind.            

Readings for the Day:
Isaiah 54:1-10
Psalm 30
Luke 7:24-30