Abimelec
by VP
Posted on Friday February 21, 2020 at 12:00AM in Books
By the brushwood we understand short excerpts from the Scriptures, which wicked men violently tear out of context to support their contentions, and with smoke and fire kill great numbers of people, that is, the smoke of error and the fire of passion, so that the flames of lust might consume the mind of those who are deceived by their evil teachings and so that the darkness of their vicious doctrine might confound them.
These indeed, are the remains that were seen in the ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah after these cities had bee destroyed: "Next morning," Scripture says, "Abraham rose early and went to the place where he had stood in the presence of the Lord. He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the wide extent of the plain, and there he saw thick smoke rising high from the earth like the smoke of a limekiln." Again when he besieged the town of Thebez with his forces, Abimelech seemed to prefigure the attack on chastity. "There was a tall castle in the middle of the city," as Scripture affirms, "and all the citizens, men, and women, and the princes of the city took refuge there. They shut themselves in and went on to the roof, standing upon the battlements of the castle. The city is the universal Church, the castle of chastity is its high point, in which both men and women, the strong and the weak, take refuge, and also the princes of the city, namely, the order of clerics who wield authority in the Church. And when Abimelech came up to the castle, the battle became more fierce, and, approaching the gate, he tried to destroy it by fire.
In the same way senseless and wanton clerics attempt to set fire to the castle of chastity as they exhort many to follow the example of their voluptuousness and burning madness. Firebrands in hand, they attack the castle of chastity as the impure enkindle the chaste with the flames of their pernicious arguments.
But who will end this battle? On whom does this struggle bestow the trophies of victory?
Scripture says: "And then a woman threw a piece of millstone down on Abimelech and fracture his skull. He called hurriedly to his armor bearer and said: "Draw your sword and dispatch me, or men will say of me: A woman killed him." So the young man carried out the order and killed him.
