Wednesday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

 (Judges 9:6-15; Matthew 19:1-16)

 Fables are stories which dramatize animals or other non-human entities in order to deliver a moral message.  The reading from the Book of Judges today comprises a fable which approximates the one just mentioned.  The issue is the appointment of a king over Israel.  Useful trees like the olive and the fig refuse the honor of kingship so a buckthorn, which is no more than a large shrub, assumes the office.  The buckthorn represents Abimelech, the cutthroat son of Gideon.  He slaughtered seventy half-brothers to secure his throne and afterward burned alive the people of Migdal-shechem.  The reading anticipates the latter atrocity when it mentions fire coming from the buckhorn. 

 The moral offered by the story is that Israel should not seek a king but accept the kingship of God.  Anything less will result in affronting God with accompanying mistreatment of the poor.  This is not to endorse theocracy in which a modern state rules according to the dictates of a religion.  Such an arrangement today often leads to severe injustice not because of God but because of human distortion of God’s law.

 We need civil government to regulate the material goods.  Christians must obey civil rulers although never at the cost of sinning.  We pray for government rulers as St. Paul admonishes.  And we try to shape laws and elect leaders that will protect the rights of all.