Spiritual Quote of the Day (Book of Esther, Who Helps Avert ‘The Calamity That is Coming to My People’)

“Then Esther spoke again to the king; she fell at his feet and besought him with tears to avert the evil design of Haman the Ag′agite and the plot which he had devised against the Jews. And the king held out the golden scepter to Esther, and Esther rose and stood before the king. And she said, ‘If it please the king, and if I have found favor in his sight, and if the thing seem right before the king, and I be pleasing in his eyes, let an order be written to revoke the letters devised by Haman the Ag′agite, the son of Hammeda′tha, which he wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the provinces of the king. For how can I endure to see the calamity that is coming to my people? Or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?’ Then King Ahasu-e′rus said to Queen Esther and to Mor′decai the Jew, ‘Behold, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and they have hanged him on the gallows, because he would lay hands on the Jews. And you may write as you please with regard to the Jews, in the name of the king, and seal it with the king’s ring; for an edict written in the name of the king and sealed with the king’s ring cannot be revoked.’”—Esther 8:3-8 (Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition)

Jews worldwide have found meaning and consolation for centuries in the story of how Esther, an orphan in a foreign land, saved her people by telling King Ahasu-e′rus of the genocidal intent of his evil minister, Haman.

But I have come to think that this tale can apply even more broadly—to refugees, displaced persons, immigrants—the persecuted and unwanted around the world (including in this country) who find themselves at the mercy of civil authorities who use them as scapegoats to distract from their own policy failures, whipping up dangerous resentments and injustice in the process.

One verse resonates especially in our time: “How can I endure to see the calamity that is coming to my people? Or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?”

The image accompanying this post, Banquet of Queen Esther, was created in 1660 by the Dutch painter, printmaker, and draughtsman Rembrandt (1606-1669).

Spiritual Quote of the Day (St. John Climacus, on Repentance, ‘The Daughter of Hope’)

“Repentance is the renewal of baptism. Repentance is a contract with God for a second life. A penitent is a buyer of humility. Repentance is constant distrust of bodily comfort. Repentance is self condemning reflection, and carefree self-care. Repentance is the daughter of hope and the renunciation of despair. A penitent is an undisgraced convict. Repentance is reconciliation with the Lord by the practice of good deeds contrary to the sins. Repentance is purification of conscience.”— Christian monk St. John Climacus (?-649 AD), The Ladder of Divine Ascent (ca. 600 AD), translated by Archimandrite Lazarus Moore (1959)

The image accompanying this post, The Return of the Prodigal Son, was created by Dutch Golden Age painter Rembrandt (1606-1669) from 1661 to 1668. That parable is one of the greatest biblical stories of repentance, and a useful one to keep in mind in this Lenten season.

Rembrandt's painting is one of the finest of his career. Interestingly, we never see the face of the prodigal, but of the forgiving father--and, off to the side, the son who never went away and is glowering now with resentment over his parent's perceived favoritism.

Spiritual Quote of the Day (Book of Exodus, With Laws of Justice)

“You shall not utter a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man, to be a malicious witness. You shall not follow a multitude to do evil; nor shall you bear witness in a suit, turning aside after a multitude, so as to pervert justice; nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his suit….

“You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor in his suit. Keep far from a false charge, and do not slay the innocent and righteous, for I will not acquit the wicked. And you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the officials, and subverts the cause of those who are in the right.

“You shall not oppress a stranger; you know the heart of a stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”—Exodus 23: 1-3, 6-9 (Revised Standard Version)

Moses, the prototypical Judeo-Christian lawgiver, is depicted in the image accompanying this post, Moses With the Ten Commandments. It was created in 1659 by the Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker, and draughtsman Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, AKA Rembrandt (1606-1669).

Song Lyric of the Day (Isaac Watts, On the Crucifixion)

“There from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flowed mingled down;
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?”— “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” (1707), lyrics by English hymn writer Isaac Watts (1674-1748), music by Edward Miller (1735-1807)
 
The image accompanying this post, Christ on the Cross, is a 1631 oil-on-canvas painting by Rembrandt.

Spiritual Quote of the Day (Michael Gerson, on the ‘Waiting People’ of Advent Narratives)

“The Advent narratives are filled with waiting people: Mary, Zechariah, Elizabeth, Simeon, Anna. They lived in patient expectation and were receptive to the Good News when it arrived. Their hope did not come as the result of a battle. It came like a seed planted in the ground. Like the sun rising in defiance of night. Like a child growing within his mother.”—Syndicated columnist (and former Presidential speechwriter) Michael Gerson, “Prominent Evangelicals Are Directing Trump’s Sinking Ship. That Feeds Doubts About Religion,” The Washington Post, Dec. 7, 2020

The image accompanying this post is Simeon's Song of Praise (1669), an oil-on-canvas painting by the Dutch artist Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn (1606–1669).

Quote of the Day (Emanuel Swedenborg, on Angels Near Us ‘Every Moment’)

“Especially do the angels call forth the goods and truths that are with a man, and set them in opposition to the evils and falsities which the evil spirits excite. Thus the man is in the midst, and does not perceive either the evil or the good; and being in the midst, he is in freedom to turn himself either to the one or to the other. By such means do angels from the Lord lead and protect a man, and this every moment, and every moment of a moment; for if the angels were to intermit their care for a single moment, the man would be precipitated into evil from which he could never afterward be brought out. These things the angels do from the love they have from the Lord, for they perceive nothing more delightful and happy than to remove evils from a man, and lead him to heaven.”— Swedish philosopher, mystic, and scientist Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772), Arcana Coelestia, Volume 8, translated by John Clowes, revised and edited by John Faulkner Potts (1749-1756)

Angels are indeed with us every moment, but they’re not just the winged messengers so familiar from religious readings or artistic depictions (such as this one from Rembrandt, of an angel appearing to the shepherds). Nor are they unfamiliar beings who appear in our lives suddenly and disappear just as quickly. 

No, angels are the friends and family, living and dead, who constantly lead us, by word and deed, now or remembered, to our better selves. We just have to be awake to their call.

Quote of the Day (Jeremiah, on God in the Heart “As A Burning Fire”)

“Thou hast deceived me, O Lord, and I am deceived: thou hast been stronger than I, and thou hast prevailed. I am become a laughing-stock all the day, all scoff at me. For I am speaking now this long time, crying out against iniquity, and I often proclaim devastation: and the word of the Lord is made a reproach to me, and a derision all the day. Then I said: I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name: and there came in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was wearied, not being able to bear it. For I heard the reproaches of many, and terror on every side: Persecute him, and let us persecute him: from all the men that were my familiars, and continued at my side: if by any means he may be deceived, and we may prevail against him, and be revenged on him. But the Lord is with me as a strong warrior: therefore they that persecute me shall fall, and shall be weak: they shall be greatly confounded, because they have not understood the everlasting reproach, which never shall be effaced.”—Jeremiah 20: 7-11

As you might have guessed from the dramatic contrast between the light and the dark, the image accompanying this post was from a painting by Rembrandt, The Prophet Jeremiah Mourning Over The Destruction Of Jerusalem (1630).

Quote of the Day (Jerome Charyn, on King Saul)

“He is a king without issue, a kind of walking shadow, a ghost boy who hides in the baggage. Saul is constantly with the night….Saul’s constant night turns him into a metaphorical man. He’s the king of a ‘dark’ nation that will flower under David. He lives in a dark time, without voices or visions. He serves as a sacrificial bridge that connects a primitive, warlike people with many gods and many tribes to a nation that serves one Lord, one God, with a continuous line under King David.”—Jerome Charyn, “1 Samuel: Meditations on the First Book of Samuel and King Saul,” Congregation: Contemporary Writers Read the Jewish Bible, edited by David Rosenberg (1987)

Has anybody out there seen that new NBC show, Kings, starring Deadwood’s Ian McShane? I haven’t, but from what I hear, they’ve set the story of Saul in the contemporary world, except that here he’s called King Silas, leader of Gilboa, only he still has a young David in the background who, the leader fears, will supplant him.

The series is garnering some interest, and even decent reviews. Give the producers credit for knowing a good story when they see it.

The news about this show sent me scurrying to dig out my copy of Congregation. It’s quite a varied anthology revolving around close readings of chapters in the Hebrew Bible by 37 leading American novelists, poets, and critics, including Elie Wiesel, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Mordecai Richler, Phillip Lopate, Harold Bloom, Francise Prose, and Cynthia Ozick. (Well, maybe we should call them North American—Richler, after all, was Canadian.)

The Charyn essay on King Saul (the image accompanying this post, is, of course, by Rembrandt, with the young David playing the lyre) is particularly perceptive, capturing how this first king of Israel, thrust into power without any particular bond with his people or God, became subject to the dark forces in his nature, finally undone by his obsession with threats to his position—a dark parable for all leaders.

The Rembrandt painting, based on 1 Samuel 18:10, renders one of these dark moments—the “evil spirit” inducing the moody king to thrust his javelin at the young musician, driving him from his presence—through characteristically expert use of lighting, particularly on the mouth, with its tight expression indicating the mood that has stolen over the uneasy monarch.