Purim and Lent

 From The Missive:

Another Jewish feast, Purim, commemorates the saving of the Jewish exiles in the Persian Empire through the intercession of Queen Esther.  It is recorded in the Book of Esther that the Persian King, Assuerus, dismissed his queen because she offended him in front of the dignitaries of the Empire.  A quest was then made to find the most beautiful woman in the kingdom to be the new queen, and Esther, a Jewess, was chosen.  When later her adopted father and uncle Mardochai learned of a plot by Aman, a court official, to have all the Jews in the kingdom killed by command of the king, Mardochai asked Esther to approach and intercede with the king for their people.  This was not without danger, however, as the law stated that any who appeared before the king unsummoned would be immediately killed if the king did not signal clemency with his scepter.  After praying, Esther entered the presence of the king.  The king granted her mercy and said to her that “this law,” concerning entering the king’s presence, “this law is not made for thee, but for all others” (15:13).  Then, through the intercession of Esther, the Jews of the kingdom were saved, and their enemies defeated.

This Feast of Purim is yearly celebrated in February or March.  On this feast, the entire Book of Esther is read in the synagogues.²  The only time, in the Roman tradition, when a reading is taken from the Book of Esther during the Temporal Cycle is on the Wednesday after the Second Sunday of Lent, which occurs yearly around the same time as Purim.  This year, the Wednesday after the Second Sunday of Lent falls on March 8th, Purim on March 6th-7th.  In this way, the Roman Liturgy preserves, incorporates, and elevates, as it were, the celebration of Purim.

The Station, the Roman church where the Pope would celebrate Mass on a given day, chosen for the Mass of the Wednesday after the Second Sunday of Lent, is the church of St. Cecilia in Trastevere.  This is worth noting because the “oldest synagogue,” in Rome is “situated in the Trastevere quarter, near the present Church of St. Cecilia.”³  Indeed, “until the first century C.E. the Jewish settlement in Rome occupied the Trastevere section of the city.”⁴  So the Roman Christians, then, would have had their Liturgical observation of Purim, as it were, near the oldest synagogue in Rome in the area of the city historically associated with the Jews of the diaspora, Jews living outside of the Holy Land.  It should be remembered that the events recounted in the Book of Esther took place outside of the Holy Land also. (Read more.)