21 August 2019 – Wednesday of 20th week in Ordinary Time - Pope Pius X – Judges 9:6-15

       For most of the first readings in the daily masses this week, we will hear passages from the book of Judges. Judges tells the story about how the people of Israel kept turning away from God, even though he would call judges and prophets to preach his message, to try to get his people to repent and return to their faith.  Instead of listening to God's message, the people often turned to false gods. 

         In the passage we hear today, Gideon had just served as a judge over Israel.  Gideon had been chosen by God from the humble tribe of Manasseh, to free Israel from attacks from neighboring tribes and to condemn their worship of foreign gods.  In fact, Gideon destroyed one town's temple to the foreign god Baal. 

         Gideon had 71 sons.  With the aid of his mother's relatives, his son Abimelech had 69 of his brothers put to death so that he alone would be able to claim the right to rule.  Jotham, the youngest son, escaped death.  The people of Shechem made Abimelech king.  Even though Gideon had a reputation of being a man of great faith, even being named as such by the letter to the Hebrews in the New Testament, Abimelech became an unprincipled, ambitious ruler who did not listen to God and who often engaged in war with his own people.

         After Abimelech became king, Jotham told a parable, in which the fig tree, the vine, and the olive tree all declined to be named king when asked, because they were too busy bearing fruit, even though each of them would have made a worthy king.  The bramble bush is asked to be king and he accepts.  Even though the bramble has pretty flowers, it is a shrub with spines; it is a twisted, tangled mess.  It bears no fruit, its wood is not useful for construction, and it is not large enough to provide shade. 

         We can often pick leaders for the wrong reasons, as this story about Abimelech shows.  If we stay true to God and his commandments, we will not go wrong.

          By contrast, the saint we celebrate today, Pope Piux X, who served as Pope from 1903 to his death in 1914, is considered one of the most influential popes of the 20th century.  Raised in a poor humble family, he lived very humbly and authentically throughout his priesthood and his papacy.  A defender of Orthodox Catholic faith against modernism, he is also remembered for his promotion of frequent reception of the Eucharist in an era when many of the faithful refrained from doing so. He prompted the Eucharist also for children and youth.  In his liturgical reforms, Pius X promoted Gregorian chant; he also revised the breviary and the Roman missal.  He also started the systematic coding of Canon Law, which led to a new code being published in 1917.  Pope Pius X stands out to us as a beacon of faith today.