Ester, Chapter 4C,
Verse 30
O
God, whose power is over all, hear the voice of those in despair. Save us from
the power of the wicked, and deliver me from my fear.”
Ester has determined here
that she must overcome fear and risk death in order to save her people. To
enter the Kings Throne room without, being called by him, was a taboo of the
Persian court and to violate it carried an immediate sentence of death. Ester
determined that to save her people she must appear to the King and risk death
for her people.
Queen Esther is in anguish because Haman, the wicked aide has convinced
the King to issue an order to kill all the Jews in his Empire. Haman did this
because Mordecai, Esther’s cousin who raised her as a daughter, would not bow
down and prostrate himself as Haman passed as the King had ordered. The date
set for destruction was the 13th of the month of Adar which corresponds to
either our month of February. It is also the very day that the Maccabees
liberated Israel after a four-year battle with the Seleucid Empire. Sister
Lucia to whom Our Lady of
Fatima appeared died on this date. Our Lady of Fatima’s first
appearance to the three shepherd children was May 13, 1917. Her last
appearance was October 13,1917. On May 13, 1981, Pope John Paul II survived an
assassination attempt. He credits Our Lady of Fatima with saving his life.
Queen Esther clothed herself in sackcloth and ashes. She fasted
from food and water for three days and asks the Jews to do the same.
After the three days, she approached the King without being summoned. She
did this even though she was aware that the King could have sentenced her to
death for doing so. When the Queen enters into the King’s presence, he extends
his scepter thus sparing her life. He was so impressed by her courage and
beauty that he promised her up to half of his kingdom. Instead, she invites him
to two banquets and invites Haman – the man responsible for the order of the
genocide of her people. At the second banquet she pleads for her life and the
life of her people. The King is horrified by what Haman has done and
orders him to be hung on the same gallows he had prepared for Mordecai.
Persian law did not permit the King to reverse his decree, but he issued another
decree that the Jews could defend themselves. Instead of being destroyed,
the Jewish people were saved and defeated their enemies in battle. The Jews
celebrate this triumph each year as their Feast of Purim. It doesn’t always
fall on the same day.
Many see Queen Esther as a type of Mary and the Book of Esther as a type
of the Apocalypse. A figure type is a person, place, thing or event
foreshadowing a New Testament archetype (a perfect model or type). The New
Testament archetype is always greater than its Old Testament figure type. For
example, Jonah’s time in the belly of the great fish is a type of Jesus in the
tomb. Moses is a type of Jesus. The Jewish people were saved through the
intercession of Queen Esther, so Mary intercedes for her people today.
The Apocalypse foretells a great persecution of Christians at the end of time,
but the Book of Revelation speak about the Ark of the Covenant appearing in the
sky and the Woman crushing the head of the dragon. (Revelation 12) When the
Blessed Mother appeared at Fatima, she wore the Star of Esther. In the Old
Testament of the Hebrew text, her name was Hádássah - meaning myrtle, a white,
five-pointed, star-shaped flower. In the Hebrew text, her name was Hádássah -
meaning myrtle, a white, five-pointed, star-shaped flower.
Like Esther, Mary came at Fatima to spare her children from destruction.
She asked people to repent of sin, pray the rosary, go to confession, and
receive the Eucharist worthily. On July 13, 1917, Our Lady said to the child
Lucia: “…I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to My Immaculate
Heart, and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests
are heeded, Russia will be converted and there will be peace; if not, she will
spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the
Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer,
and various nations will be annihilated. ... In the end, My Immaculate Heart
will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she will be
converted, and an era of peace will be granted to the world.” Had her requests
been heeded the world would have been spared the horrors of World War II in
which over 50 million people died and countless other wars and persecutions
provoked by Communists throughout the world. In 1920, Russia was also the first
country to legalize abortion. In 1913, Communist leader Vladimir Lenin demanded
“the unconditional annulment of all laws against abortions or against the
distribution of medical literature on contraceptive measures.” Great evils
threaten our world. Sin increases. So many hearts are hardened. We need to call
on Our Lady in prayer. Heed her requests at Fatima and Lourdes. Do
penance, do the Five First
Saturday devotion by going to confession, receiving the Eucharist,
praying the rosary and meditating 15 minutes on the mysteries for five first
Saturdays of the month in a row. Queen Esther asked her people to do pray
and do penance with her. We must listen to the Blessed Mother today and ask her
to intercede with her Son that he might spare us, our nation and our
world.
The particular term "destroying angel"
(malakh ha-mashhit) occurs twice in the Bible, in II Samuel 24:16 and its
parallel, I Chronicles 21:15. Other allusions to this "destroyer"
(mashhit), can be found in Exodus 12:23 and Isaiah 54:16. The story of
Sennacherib's siege of Jerusalem may also allude to a destroying angel,
although the term used there is simply malakh. In the cultures of the ancient
Near East, gods were believed to be responsible for death and destruction. The
Bible, however, does not portray such a configuration. Instead, the destructive
agents act according to God's instruction: they are His messengers and it is
the Lord who initiates death and destruction.
THE PLAGUES OF EGYPT The destroying angel seems to be alluded to
in the Bible's description of the slaying of the firstborn, where he is called
ha-mashhit: for the Lord will pass over the door and not let the Destroyer
enter and smite your home (Ex. 12:23). While is stated explicitly that the Lord
passed through Egypt to smite the firstborn (Ex. 12:12–13), and the text of the
Passover Haggadah expounds this to mean, "I and not an angel," verse
23 attests that the Lord was accompanied by the destroying angel, whose nature
is to strike down all whom he encounters, unless – as here – the Lord restrains
him. This seems to be the intention of the Mekhilta's comment on verse 22, None
of you shall go outside the door of his house until morning: "This
indicates that when the destroying angel is given permission to do harm, he
does not distinguish between the righteous and the wicked." 3 The
Psalmist's account of the plagues of Egypt (Ps. 78:49) indicates that the
plagues were inflicted by mishlahat malakhei ra'im – a band of deadly [lit. evil]
angels. The talmudic sages used the term mishlahat to describe a band of
destructive creatures, specifically a wolf pack. 4 Kraus believes that this
"band of evil angels" does not refer to the destroying angel"
(mashhit) associated with the last plague (Ex. 12:23), but to the demonic
powers that the Lord dispatches with every affliction. 5 It seems, then, that we must distinguish
the "destroying angel," ha-mashhit, from the messengers of death who
come to punish individuals only. By contrast, the Destroyer is sent by the Lord
to kill multitudes through a plague. Unlike the deadly messengers, who bring
both natural and premature death, the Destroyer inflicts only a premature,
painful death. Still, this mashhit is controlled by God.
WRATH
Another implicit allusion to the destroying angel can be found in for
wrath [ketzef] has gone forth from the Lord: the plague has begun (Num. 17:11
[RSV 16:46]). Milgrom sees this wrath or anger as an independent entity,
similar to the Destroyer that acts on behalf of the Lord. 10 There are indeed
several references to it in the Bible. Thus (Num. 1:53), The Levites, however,
shall camp around the Tabernacle of the Pact, that the wrath [ketzef] may not
strike the Israelite community. Similarly, the mandate continues, No outsider
shall intrude upon you as you discharge the duties connected with the Shrine
and the altar, that wrath [ketzef] may not again strike the Israelites (Num.
18:5). 11 According to Rashi, this plague is spread by the Angel of Death, who
is also known as "the Anger before the Lord with the authority to
kill."
In the Talmud, the Angel of Death (malakh ha-mavet)
has assistants, one of whom is actually named Ketzef: "Rav Hisda said:
'They are: Fury, Anger and Wrath [Ketzef], Destroyer and Breaker and Annihilator'".
13 Elsewhere, Ketzef is the name of an angel of destruction (Targum Yerushalmi,
Numbers 17:11). He is also specifically noted as acting on behalf of God, not
as an independent entity: Wrath [ketzef] has gone forth from the Lord (Num.
17:11). The Sages regarded the Destroyer as an amoral
force that could be overcome only through sacrificial blood, incense, or some
other ritual. However, these rituals were directed to God, not to the Destroyer
himself. 14 In the ancient Near East, incense was burned for the gods to
placate them and still their anger. Egyptian reliefs depict Canaanite priests
standing on a high place and offering incense to Pharaoh, who is massacring the
inhabitants of a city. 15 In both of the biblical stories about the Destroyer
(the Tenth Plague and the threshing floor of Araunah), the plague is halted by
a ritual act (placing blood on the doorpost, building an altar, burning
incense), but it is God, not His messenger, who responds.
The Angel
of Death receives his instructions from God. When permitted to take the souls
of human beings, he does not distinguish between the good and the wicked. His
function is to take men's souls. Only a chosen few of the nation's ancestors
died by the Divine kiss and were not given over to this angel’s control. 21 He
was created by God on the first day of Creation, operates under His authority,
and performs His behest. Nevertheless, he is granted a degree of autonomy in
his actions and choices, 22 certain actions by human beings making him more
likely to strike them. 23
CONCLUSION The destroying angel is explicitly
mentioned twice in the Bible (II Sam. 24:16; I Chron. 21:15). In addition,
there are several other passages in the Bible and rabbinic literature that
refer to destructive supernatural forces. The idea of the destroying angel as
an independent force, acting of its own accord, is foreign to the Hebrew Bible,
which emphasizes that God is in control of these destructive forces so as to
negate polytheistic beliefs. The angel can do nothing on its own initiative and
must only act in compliance with the will of God. It is He alone who deals
death and gives life.
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The work of researchers who
reported detecting the signal left behind by the rapid expansion of space
billions of years ago is rooted in the efforts of a Belgian priest whose
mathematical computations in the 1920s laid the groundwork for the Big Bang
theory. Msgr. George Lemaitre, a mathematician who studied alongside leading
scientists of the first half of the 20th century exploring the origins of the
universe, suggested that the cosmos began as a super-dense "primeval
atom" that underwent some type of reaction that initiated the expansion of
the universe which continues today. The priest's conclusions challenged the
conventional hypothesis proposed by luminaries such as Albert Einstein and Fred
Hoyle that the universe was in a steady state. Researchers in cosmology over
the decades refined Msgr. Lemaitre's idea, leading to what became widely known
as the Big Bang theory and later ideas that signs of the Big Bang can be
detected. The most recent evidence supporting the Big Bang emerged March 17
when a team of scientists announced they detected polarization in light caused
by primordial gravitational waves originating from the Big Bang. The
measurements were made with the Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic
Polarization experiment, or Biceps2, located at near the South Pole
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