Readings:
Esther 9-10
1 Timothy 3

Esther 9-10

The Jews rise up in defense of their communities and with the backing of the crown. They slay their enemies, but they don’t engage in plundering. This is to show that they are acting in self defense and not like a violent mob out for blood and looting. They had every right to defend themselves from attack and they exercised their rights to the fullest.

They also killed and impaled the ten sons of Haman. This can be seen in two different ways; one being an act of revenge, which in the Old Testament was common and not yet overridden by the words of Jesus.

Another way of seeing it is a defensive measure, because Haman’s sons would surely seek revenge and it would renew this cycle of violence. A kind of utilitarian way of looking at it, and one that I’m not sure would pass muster even in those days as a moral act, so I like to think of it as more of an “eye for an eye” type thing.

Another very real possibility is that the ten sons were just more casualties of the attacks that had taken place due to the edict of Haman. If that’s the case then there’s no moral ambiguity that we have to try and figure out because it’s clearly self defense.

1 Timothy 3

Saint Paul lays out the qualifications of being ordained in the church. Since the early days of the church there has been a threefold ministry in Holy Orders; Bishop, Priest, and deacon. This is a mirror image of the threefold order in the temple of Jerusalem.

As if to say that the traditions of the apostles were taken from the Old Testament, bishops, presbyters, and deacons occupy in the Church the same positions that Aaron, his sons, and the Levites occupied in the Temple

Saint Jerome

In the first millennium of the church, priestly celibacy was only really practiced in monastic communities, but it became the norm in the western church, while the eastern church retained it only for monastics and on a voluntary basis. It’s a discipline of the church and not a dogma or doctrine so it could be changed in the future, but given the long history in the west and the fact that many Latin Rite priests don’t want it to change, it seems not likely any time soon.

I’ve personally talked to married eastern Catholic priests, and they are obviously in favor of a married priesthood, but even they recognize the drawbacks and limitations that they have and that an unmarried Latin Rite Catholic priest does not have.

But the line here that bishops should be “husband to one wife” is often used out of context to attack celibacy in the clergy. This line from Paul doesn’t mean a bishop must be married, it just means that he’s limited to a single wife in his lifetime. If he becomes a widower he’d be expected to remain so for life and not remarry. That’s been the understanding since the early fathers of the church and is the obvious plain meaning of the text.

Also the requirements for being a deacon are very similar, also with the “one wife” provision included. And these lists of characteristics of deacons and bishops should really be sought after by all Christians. How much better would the church and the world be if we we all tried to live up to these lists everyday?

Paul uses a phrase in the closing of this chapter, where he calls the church the “pillar and foundation” of truth. This didn’t mean as much to me before my conversion to Catholicism as it does now. I had lived the first 30 years of my life in churches that held the Bible as the pillar of truth, and that sounds good on the surface but in practice it leads to thousands of different interpretations of the exact same scriptures leading to thousands of different denominations.

This isn’t what Jesus wanted for his church and it’s why Paul tells Timothy that the church is the foundation of truth. It’s often referred to as a three legged stool with scripture, tradition and the magisterium supporting each other.

Tomorrow’s Readings:
Zechariah 1-3
1 Timothy 4