Judges 17: As We Are – Part I
Lady With the Pet Dog
Friday, December 16, 2022
In this time of Advent, as we expect the coming of light and truth, we reflect on the stories of Judges.
The stories in the Book of Judges describe the cycle the Hebrew people follow repeatedly – they sin, they fall into the servitude of another nation, they petition Yahweh for help, they are delivered by Yahweh, they fall into a silent relationship with Yahweh. They sin again and the cycle is repeated. In Judges, a series of leaders guide the people during times of great stress and they are: Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, Deborah, Gideon, Tola, Jair, Hepthah, Ibzan, Elon, Abdon and Samson. Following these stories there is an epilog describing the nature of religious and moral disorder; and this is where we find ourselves today. It seems that we human beings continually forget our tendency to fall away from God and as the writer of Judges says in 17:6: In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what he thought best. He might be writing about today.
Several months ago, a friend handed me a reflection written by Dino Gerard D’Agata, and this line continues to draw me back to re-read it many times: I would wager that anyone who has ever had difficulty remaining faithful to a community, or faithful to a spouse and children, might admit – perhaps reluctantly – that the difficulty lies, not so much in the others, but in his own inability to accept what he sees about himself that becomes irrevocably reflected to him in time that it unavoidably spent with these others. D’Agata goes on to use the short story of Chekhov – The Lady with the Pet Dog – as an example of this line of thinking. The protagonist enters into a series of adulterous affairs with various women, we are told, despite the difficulties with logistics and inconveniences, and he realizes that all of the women he ever loved fell in love not with him but with an image they had of him. D’Agata continues: I suppose if they had fallen in love with who he actually was, he would have accused them of eliciting the same boredom he claimed he found in his wife. This man cannot live with himself as he is, nor does he improve his behavior; rather, he remains in relationship long enough to see himself as these women imagine him to be and then he exits. Is he unable to maintain the false version of himself? Is he unwilling to see his true self? How long is he able to skim through life, dipping into the surface of relationships without actually coming to grips with who he is and what he is doing? Endlessly, it seems, but more importantly . . . are we like or unlike this man?
Tomorrow, intimacy with God . . . as we are.
Image from: https://ecronin94.wordpress.com/2012/12/14/two-ladies-and-two-dogs-walk-into-a-bar/
A favorite from December 5, 2009.
The Noontimes 