Memory of the Mother of the Lord

Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The Spirit of the Lord is upon you.
The child you shall bear will be holy.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Judges 6,11-24

The Angel of Yahweh came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah which belonged to Joash of Abiezer. Gideon his son was threshing wheat inside the wine-press, to keep it hidden from Midian, and the Angel of Yahweh appeared to him and said, 'Yahweh is with you, valiant warrior!' Gideon replied, 'Excuse me, my lord, but if Yahweh is with us, why is all this happening to us? And where are all his miracles which our ancestors used to tell us about when they said, "Did not Yahweh bring us out of Egypt?" But now Yahweh has deserted us; he has abandoned us to Midian.' At this, Yahweh turned to him and said, 'Go in this strength of yours, and you will rescue Israel from the power of Midian. Am I not sending you myself?' Gideon replied, 'Forgive me, my lord, but how can I deliver Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh and I am the least important of my father's family.' Yahweh replied, 'I shall be with you and you will crush Midian as though it were one man.' Gideon said, 'If I have found favour in your sight, give me a sign that you are speaking to me. Please do not go away from here until I come back to you, bringing you my offering and laying it before you.' And he replied, 'I shall stay until you come back.' Gideon went away, he prepared a young goat and from an ephah of flour he made unleavened cakes. He put the meat into a basket and the broth into a pot, then brought it all to him under the terebinth. As he approached, the Angel of Yahweh said to him, 'Take the meat and unleavened cakes, put them on this rock and pour the broth over them.' Gideon did so. The Angel of Yahweh then stretched out the tip of the staff which he was carrying, and touched the meat and unleavened cakes. Fire sprang from the rock and consumed the meat and unleavened cakes, and the Angel of Yahweh vanished before his eyes. Gideon then knew that this was the Angel of Yahweh, and he said, 'Alas, my Lord Yahweh! Now I have seen the Angel of Yahweh face to face!' Yahweh answered, 'Peace be with you; have no fear; you will not die.' Gideon built an altar there to Yahweh and called it Yahweh-Peace. This altar stands in our own day at Ophrah of Abiezer.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The story of Deborah, the prophetess and judge, immediately precedes the cycle of Gideon, which takes up three chapters of the book. The story opens by recounting the slavery under the yoke of the Midianites who force the Israelites to work for them. At the end of the work, in fact, they seize their entire crop. But Israel did not cease to pray to the Lord that they may once again be freed from slavery. The Lord sees the suffering of his people, he hears their prayer and decides to intervene. The Lord then reveals himself to Gideon in the guise of an angel who speaks directly to him. The Lord reveals himself always as a word. "The Lord is with you." Gideon's response to this greeting is plural: "But sir, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us?" Gideon understands that the call of the Lord is never individual, it is for all the people which he represents at that moment. The Lord responds by choosing Gideon and sending him to win the same evil he complains about, "Go in this might of yours and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian." The strength of Gideon is in the Lord himself: "I will be with you, and you shall strike down the Midianites." Gideon welcomes these words. But he still wants to continue the dialogue with God to be sure that He is the one talking to him. We could say he wants to "see" God with his own eyes. And he "sees" in the context of hospitality. Gideon, as a liturgical gesture, offers his guest some food, but it is the same guest who touches it and makes it holy. And then the angel of the Lord vanished from his eyes. It looks like an anticipation of the meeting of Emmaus. From the very beginning of the history of salvation, hospitality and welcome appear as the place of encounter with God. Jesus says, "I was hungry ... I was a stranger and you welcomed me" (Mt 25:31-46).