The first reading is an excerpt from the Book of Esther where Queen Esther, who is Jewish but is married to the Persian emperor, is appealing to God through prayer to deliver her uncle and the Jews residing in the Persian empire in the wake of the Babylonian exile. This occurred about 500 years before the birth of Christ.
The emperor, Ahasuerus, had been misled by a prideful servant named Haman. Haman convinced Ahasuerus that the Jews were undermining his authority and therefore he issued a decree ordering their destruction.
Queen Eshter is ultimately the hero of the story, as God works through her to soften the heart of Ahasuerus and ultimately spare the Jewish people of the destruction.
Queen Esther took great personal risk to save the Jews. Ahasuerus had no idea that Esther was Jewish when he married her, nor when he issued the decree. If her true heritage was to be discovered, he might just as well execute her and the Jewish people would have still perished.
Queen Esther was very aware of this risk. This is the mortal anguish she was wrestling with in the reading. Her story reminds us that courage is not an absence of fear, but rather persevering to do what is morally right in the face of fear. Courage is stepping out of our comfort zone to do what is morally right, even when we face the full force of the world, the flesh, and the devil when we do so.
Queen Esther shows us that if we are in a state of grace, God will give us what we need to offer salvation to those around us. But we must be open to and responsive to the grace of God working in our lives.
Our reading also shows us that Esther felt that she was alone in her mission, but that she had everything she needed. This reminded me of how fortunate we are. We are in a strong parish. In many ways, we are the envy of the area.
At the same time, we are starting to see many of the signs and trajectories that other parishes were seeing 20 years ago. Signs and trajectories the other parishes ignored, and are now closed.
The Persian empire of today is slowing eroding our flock. Offering them immense portions of bread and fish, but only giving them stones and snakes. Even many that we see sitting in our pews on Sundays are carrying around the stones and snakes of the secular worldview.
We need to take on the mission of the new evangelization with the heart of Queen Esther. Our people are at risk of being destroyed just as hers were.
That is our challenge. As we as a parish pivot from maintenance to mission, let’s take on the courage of Queen Esther to let go of what we thought it meant to be Christian.
Let’s take on the courage of Queen Esther to come out into the world to meet people where they are, to develop a relationship with them, to build trust and openness with them, and walk with them to a true encounter with Christ.
Let’s take on the courage to reimagine how we (and the ministries we are in) serve this parish during this time of extreme need. Let us have the courage to let go of something that may be very good, but would allow us to take on something else even better, namely missionary discipleship.
Esther’s uncle asked her “Who knows—perhaps it was for a time like this that you became queen?” I think that is our question as well. Perhaps it was for a time like this that we have become Christian. A time to don the badge of missionary discipleship in a time of urgency and crises. A time to don the badge of missionary discipleship in a time where the children of God need to desperately return to the table of grace where they can receive the good things our heavenly Father has for them.
If we have the courage to allow Him to work through us as missionary disciples, He will save our people from the hand of our enemies; turn our mourning into gladness and our sorrows into wholeness.
Thanks be to God.
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