Esther appears before the king
1Ending her prayer on the third day, Esther took off her penitential garments and put on her royal attire. ① 2Radiant in appearance after invoking the all-seeing God and Savior, she took her two maids with her, and leaned gently on one of them for support, while the other followed carrying her train. 3Although her heart was frozen with fear, she looked radiant in her perfect beauty, her face depicting love and joy.
4After passing through all the doors, she found herself face to face with the king seated on his throne, awe-inspiring in the full array of his majesty, his robes all covered with gold and precious stones. 5As he looked up, his face flushed with majestic anger, the queen faltered, turned pale and leaned weakly upon the shoulder of the maid in front of her.
6Then God changed the king’s anger to gentleness. Alarmed, he sprang from his throne, took Esther in his arms until she had recovered and comforted her with soothing words. 7“What is it, Esther?” he said. “I am your brother. Take heart. You will not die, because our decree applies only to ordinary people. Come, speak to me.” 8He raised the golden scepter, touched her neck with it, then embraced her saying, “Speak to me.”
9Esther spoke: “My lord, I saw you like an angel of God, and I trembled with fear before your majesty. 10For you are admirable, my Lord, and your appearance is awesome although you are full of kindness.” 11But she fell fainting as she spoke. The king was deeply distressed, and his attendants tried to revive her.
- Note this paragraph where Ahasuerus is described as if he were a divine person. It is the same pagan king about whom Esther spoke with such contempt in the previous chapter.
This is why: the pagans obeyed their kings as if they were gods, and the Jews, instead of opposing them – which would have brought about their own persecution – praised them even more. Doing this was a sort of game for them because they were thinking: what my lips are saying about this king of Persia, I say to my Lord from the heart (see the same in Jdt 12:14).
This dialogue between Esther and Ahasuerus was written as a parable: Ahasuerus personifies the Almighty King who was won over by the sacrificial faith of Esther, and who welcomed her as a sister with a tenderness which she herself could not have forseen. God is the one who cannot bear to see Esther’s anxiety and who grants her the salvation of her people.
With all this, we will more easily understand why the Church, in praising Mary, remembers words from the book of Esther: because, at Christ’s side, Mary intercedes for us.
