Memory of the Church

Reading of the Word of God

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

I am the good shepherd,
my sheep listen to my voice,
and they become
one flock and one fold.
.

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

Esther 4,17i.17k.17l.17s

And all Israel cried out with all their might, since death was staring them in the face. Queen Esther also took refuge with the Lord in the mortal peril which had overtaken her. She took off her sumptuous robes and put on sorrowful mourning. Instead of expensive perfumes, she covered her head with ashes and dung. She mortified her body severely, and the former scenes of her happiness and elegance were now littered with tresses torn from her hair. She besought the Lord God of Israel in these words: My Lord, our King, the Only One, come to my help, for I am alone and have no helper but you and am about to take my life in my hands. Put persuasive words into my mouth when I face the lion; change his feeling into hatred for our enemy, so that he may meet his end, and all those like him!

 

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

Mordecai's prayer is a profession of faith and resistance to evil. Esther's prayer is richer and more personal. When faced with an enemy, believers not only ask to be freed from him, but they also show awareness of their sin: "We have sinned." The presence of an enemy is interpreted by the people of Isarel as a correction, a call to return to a more steadfast faith that they had neglected as they were anxiously seeking their wellbeing. Esther sought "refuge with the Lord, gripped by mortal anguish." Hence her prayer: she prostrated herself on the ground with her handmaidens from morning till evening. Mindful of the history of the covenant - through listening to the books of the ancestors - she invoked God's protection on herself and on all the people, alternating the singular and the plural. She detached herself from the people when she considered it her specific task to present herself to the king, a mission for which she felt loneliness, weakness and anguish; at the same time, she identified herself with the people, becoming their spokesperson, when it comes to pleading with the Lord to be delivered from their enemies for the very glory of the Lord and the defence of his inheritance. She presented herself to the Lord as a queen in spite of herself, not sharing in the benefits of her role, as if this makes her a more suitable instrument and disposes her to rely only on the Lord: "My Lord, our king, you are the only one! Come to the aid of me who am alone and have no other help but you." Esther stands before us all as a believer who feels the responsibility not to save herself but all the people.