Nehemiah |
MAY 30
SHAVUOT—FEAST OF ST.
JOAN OF ARC
Nehemiah, Chapter
2, Verse 1-3
1 In the month Nisan of the twentieth year of
King Artaxerxes, when the wine was in my charge, I took some and offered it to
the king. Because I had never before been sad in his presence, 2 the king
asked me, “Why do you look sad? If you are not sick, you must be sad at heart.”
Though I was seized with great fear, 3
I answered the king: “May the king
live forever! How could I not look sad when the city where my ancestors are
buried lies in ruins, and its gates consumed by fire?”
Here the God of God’s
moves the heart of a great and powerful King toward Nehemiah like He did with
Joseph the many years before when he was sold into slavery by his brothers. Our
God is a God of love and life and desires only to nurture our souls.
Shavuot is one of the three major
Jewish festivals and comes exactly fifty days after Passover. After being
redeemed from Egyptian slavery, the Jews arrived on Mount Sinai and received
the Torah from God. This wonderful event took place 3,317 years ago. The word
Shavuot means “weeks.” It marks the completion of the seven weeks, 49 days,
between Passover and Shavuot during which the Jewish people prepared themselves
for the giving of the Torah. During this time period they prepared themselves
spiritually and entered into an eternal covenant with God with the giving of
the Torah. Shavuot also means “oaths.” With the giving of the Torah, the Jewish
people and God exchanged oaths, forming an everlasting covenant, not to forsake
one another. Every year on this day we celebrate and renew our acceptance of
God’s gift and our eternal bond with Him. There are several interesting customs
associated with this holiday. We stay up all night learning Torah, read the Ten
Commandments and the book of Ruth, and eat milk products, especially
cheesecake. The custom of learning is especially fitting for the holiday that
commemorates the giving of the Torah. The custom of dairy products seems
surprising. Among the different explanations given for this custom, one points
out that the Hebrew word for milk is chalav. When the numerical value of the
letters in this word are added together – 8; 30; 2 – the total is forty. Forty
hints to the number of days Moses was on Mount Sinai receiving the Torah. I
would like to present another, perhaps more personal and spiritual reason for
this custom. Unlike meat that nourishes the flesh, milk is full of calcium
which nourishes the bones. The Hebrew for bones is “Atzmot תמוצע ” which is
also the word that means “essence.” This custom hints to the fact that on this
holiday we absorb the Torah which nourishes our essence. Additionally, milk is
the most basic of foods that a nursing mother shares with her infant. The mother
literally gives of her essence and nurtures the essence of the baby. This
relationship parallels the personal bond and love that a mother shares with her
child. On Shavuot we celebrate the personal relationship that we have with God,
when He gives over His essence, the Torah, and we absorb it into the essence of
our soul.
·
On
Shavuot, it is customary to adorn the Synagogue and home with flowers and green
plants. This is in memory of the foliage around Mount Sinai
·
On
Shavuot, it is customary to eat milk products. Many Jewish houses,
replace the normal meat/chicken dinners with a festivity of milk products,
including cheese cake, blintzes, cheeses and ice cream. This custom
commemorates the acts of the children of Israel at Sinai. Having received
the Law, they understood that their dishes were no longer Kosher, having been
used for milk and meat together. They also were in need of teaching on
the intricate details of ritual slaughter (Shechitah). Lacking these,
they opted to eat only milk products.
·
It
is customary in Orthodox and some traditional communities to partake in
Bible/Jewish Law lessons throughout the eve and night of Shavuot. This is
in order to accept the Torah for their generation. In Jerusalem, many
people learn the whole night through until dawn and then walk to the Western
Wall at sunrise and pray the morning and festival prayer from around 5-8 am.
Thereafter, they go home for a hearty festive breakfast and then sleep
the rest of the morning.
·
The
Book of Ruth is read in the Synagogue in the Morning of Shavuot. Ruth
converted to Judaism and it is her descendant, David, who became King in
Israel. The book of Ruth demonstrates that achieving a high level in
Judaism, is neither ethnic nor genetic.
·
It
is customary to wear new clothes on Shavuot. In the seven weeks (the
Omer) preceding Shavuot, people refrain from purchasing major clothing items.
Feast of St. Joan of Arc[3]
John McCain notes in his
study of leadership that Saint Joan of Arc was an example of leadership that
was characterized by authenticity. At the command of voices that only she could
hear, she rode to battle and saved her country. SHE COULD NOT READ OR WRITE,
BUT SAINTS AND ANGELS SPOKE TO HER. Michael the Archangel, and Catherine and
Margaret, the patron saints of France, commanded the thirteen-year-old peasant
girl to pray vigilantly and attend Mass regularly. She is remembered as very
beautiful, a slight seventeen-year-old girl with black hair who could ride for
long hours in heavy armor without any sign of discomfort. She kept silent for
long periods, but could be roused to great anger at men swearing or behaving in
some other sinful manner. She prayed and fasted often, and seemed most
comfortable in the company of poor priests. Before they embarked, she had
dictated to a priest a letter for the English commanders in Orléans, warning
them to “go away back to England . . . or I will drive you out of France.” This
is the first the English had ever heard of Joan of Arc. To the French, and
their dauphin, who now placed their trust in her, she was becoming a saint. As
they marched to Orléans, she saw to the spiritual needs of her soldiers,
ordering them to abandon their vices, to refrain from looting and harming
civilians, to confess their sins and attend Mass regularly, which they did. Men
who had refused to serve Charles in what they believed was a losing cause now
rushed to her standard, and prepared for battle. A few days later, the rest of
her army began to arrive with much needed supplies, just as word was received
that another English army was marching to the aid of her enemies. She went to
sleep that night happy in the knowledge that the moment was at hand when she
would accomplish what her saints had commanded her to do. She awoke in the
middle of the night, and stirred her generals with the news that they must
attack immediately. In fact, a battle had already begun at the nearest English
fortification. Joan commanded her page to bring her horse, as she dressed in
her armor, and then raced to join the fight carrying her banner. When she reached
her soldiers, she saw that they were losing the battle, but her presence
inspired them, and they rallied to take the fort. After the battle Joan wept
for the fallen, French and English alike. On the next day they took another
English fort, and the day after one more. But the fighting during the third
battle had been ferocious. Joan was wounded by an arrow through her shoulder as
she attempted to scale one of the fort’s walls, and was carried to safety.
Seeing her hurt and carried from the field, her troops lost courage, and the
assault was suspended. Some witnesses say she removed the arrow herself. Others
remembered her soldiers treating the wound. Whatever the case, legend has it
that she responded to her soldiers’ fears
by telling them to rally to her when they saw her banner strike the fort’s
wall. And when they did see it, they recovered their courage and took the fort.
The next day the English abandoned the siege. Orléans was saved. Both English
and French generals gave the credit to Joan. She gave it to God. Then she rode
to meet Charles. When they met, she bowed to him, and urged him to hasten to
Reims, where his crown awaited him. But Charles hesitated. His will was weak,
for he was not a man of great courage, and his advisors at court, some of whom resented
Joan’s interference, cautioned him to proceed slowly, for there were still many
powerful English armies in France that had to be destroyed. Joan, as always,
rode in the front, carrying her banner, urging her soldiers to victory.
Inspired by her courage, and by the obvious favor of God that protected her,
they carried the day, routing the English and opening the road to Reims. The
English and all the French, those loyal to the dauphin and those who fought for
Henry, recognized that this strange young girl, now known as the Maid of
Orléans, must be in the service of a sovereign more powerful than any earthly
king. Joan in the end like the eternal King she served was abandoned by her
earthly King and was captured by the Burundians. John of Luxembourg took her to
his castle, where, she twice tried to escape, once by jumping from a castle
tower into the moat below. Attempts to ransom her were refused, as were French
attempts to liberate her by force. After several months, Luxembourg handed Joan
over to the English, and she was taken to the city of Rouen, where a corrupt
bishop, Pierre Cauchon, was instructed to put her on trial for heresy. The
rules of war did not permit the English to condemn Joan for opposing them in
battle. So they sought her death by falsely accusing her of witchcraft. Cauchon
tried for weeks to compel her to confess, but despite threats of torture and
execution, she steadfastly refused to divulge her conversations with Charles or
to concede that the saints who spoke to her were demons or merely inventions of
her own blasphemy. She was denied permission to attend Mass and receive the
sacraments. She was often kept in chains and became very ill. Yet she stayed
true to herself, and to her saints. She wore a dress when they brought her to a
church cemetery to hear her sentence read, condemning her to be burned at the
stake. She asked that her conviction be appealed to the pope. Her persecutors
refused her. And then, Joan of Arc, for the first and only time in her brief
life, tried to be someone she was not. Fearing
the flames, she confessed to being a heretic and recanted her claim to have
heard and obeyed her saints, and begged her enemies for mercy. Mercy they had
little of, but having taken from her what their armies could not, they no longer
thought her life such a great thing that it could not be spared. She was now
nothing more than a confessed imposter. They had wanted to destroy her truth,
that she was God’s messenger. Having done so, it mattered little whether she
died or suffered long imprisonment. Their work done, they left her in her cell,
to the taunts and abuses of the guards, and commanded her to dress only in
women’s clothes. When they next saw her, a few days later, she was attired in
the clothes of a boy. She had recovered her courage and her truth. Her saints
had reproached her for denying them, and she had begged their forgiveness. She
had become her true self again. She was the Maid of Orléans, a pretty, pious
nineteen-year-old girl who had left her father’s house and taken up arms for
more than a year, as heaven had commanded her. And with heaven’s encouragement
she had defeated France’s enemies in battle after battle, frightened and awed the bravest English heart, rallied a nation to
her banner, and made a weak, defeated man a king. God’s messenger went bravely
to her death, forgiving her accusers and asking only that a priest hold high a
crucifix for her to see it above the flames. She raised her voice to heaven,
calling out to her saints and her Savior. Even her enemies wept at the sight.
Her executioner was shaken with remorse, and an anguished English soldier who
witnessed the crime feared for his soul. “God forgive us,” he cried, “We have
burned a saint.”
The Gift of Understanding[4]
Understanding is a gift
“to give a deeper insight and penetration of divine truths held by faith, not
as a transitory enlightenment but as a permanent intuition.” Illuminating the
mind to truth, the Holy Spirit aids a person to grasp the truths of faith
easily and to penetrate the depths of those truths. Such illumination,
grasping, and penetration allows one to enter a divine intimacy with the Lord.
This gift also assists in understanding natural truths and the use of created
things but through a lens of faith. While enjoying created things, a person
understands that they not only attest to His majesty as the Creator but also
are gifts from God to be used wisely. As such, a person understands that all of
creation is passing and has a sense of detachment. Therefore, creation does not
become an end in itself, or created things idols, but one understands they are
gifts from Almighty God. Understanding, then, moves a person always to be
mindful to place God first in life, to be generous in helping others in need,
and to reject what is useless.
Daily Devotions/Prayers
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