Since I knew how the story of Esther turned out, I planned to speed through and past that this week, but in such cases my plans rarely work out. Instead, I ended up mulling over the story of Haman. Truly, there are four stories in Esther: (1) Esther, (2) Xerxes, (3), Mordecai, and (4) Haman. Each would serve as an excellent source of meditation: Esther was brave, Xerxes compassionate, Mordecai wise, and Haman proud. Although the story of Esther is the one that likely grabs most people's attention, it was the story of Haman that riveted me. First, I found some intriguing parallels with modern history. Haman planned a genocide of the Jewish people centuries before Hitler actually carried one out. While clearly the similarity in the names is coincidental, I do find fit it interesting that both Haman and Hitler have two-syllable names that begin with H.
Second, Haman was a self-absorbed, ambitious, proud man. He planned to achieve glory through others' suffering. How ironic that he was killed by the same device he built to kill Mordecai.
Reading: Esther 7:10
Meditation: As I read Haman's story, one phrase kept revolving through my mind: hoist by his own petard. The origin of the expression, as far as I know, is Shakespeare's use of it in Hamlet (hah, another person with a two-syllable name beginning with an H) when Hamlet gets the letters with the death threat against himself and realizes that he can turn the tables on the two who wrote them. Certainly, Haman is the kind of man that anyone would love to hate and would love to see dead, but I think that is one of this situations in which our human drive for justice rides roughshod over the gentler attribute of mercy. While Haman was blinded by his ambition (a fatal flaw that Shakespeare treats in some of his tragedies) and by his pride (a deadly sin, in this case, literally so), if we feel a sense of glee in the demise of Haman, we, too, have a long way to go in spiritual development. And I do have to admit that my initial reaction was satisfaction with the ironic and "well deserved" ending of Haman's life. My second reaction was "oh, oh, not kind, long way to go, lots more to learn." My final, and lasting, reaction is to feel sorry for Haman. We all have only one life on this earth. Haman's decisions trivialized his life. Let us all avoid the kind of pride and ambition that ultimately requires us to give up the only life we have.
Contemplation: That is far as I can go with you this Monday morning. I must retire to private prayer to thank God for giving me a life and the free will to make choices good and bad, to praise Him for His ability and willingness to guide me through those choices, to repent for any time that I have trivialized His gift by making choices for myself that He would not make for me, and to ask Him to forgive me for those times. Then I will spend as much time as I can in contemplation, my favorite part of the day, letting God take over the direction in which my relationship with Him moves, giving the choices back to Him.
I will leave you to your prayer and contemplation, but first, I would like to bring to your attention a Monday morning prayer post that you might enjoy:
Fr. Austin Fleming, priest of the Archdiocese of Boston and pastor in Concord, Massachusetts, posts a prayer each Monday morning that he calls "Monday Morning Offering." I enjoy his prayers very much. I hope you also will find them inspirational. He has graciously given me permission to include a link to his blog on my Monday Morning Meditation posts. (During the week, he also posts great homilies and other thoughtful discussions. I enjoy reading those, too.)For additional inspiration throughout the week, I would point out two sets of blogs: (1) the list of devotional blogs that follow the enumeration of Monday Morning Meditations on the sidebar of this blog and (2) my blogroll, where I am following a number of inspirational priests and writers about spiritual matters. I learn so very much from all these people. I highly recommend them to you.
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