Go and tell that fox

30 OCTOBER (Lk 13,31-35)

Samson uses some foxes to set fire to the wheat fields of the Philistines. They are needed so that Samson can carry out his desire for revenge against his enemies.

After some time, in the season of the wheat harvest, Samson visited his wife, bringing a kid. But when he said, “Let me be with my wife in private,” her father would not let him enter, saying, “I thought it certain you wished to repudiate her; so I gave her to your best man. Her younger sister is more beautiful than she; you may have her instead.” Samson said to them, “This time the Philistines cannot blame me if I harm them.” So Samson left and caught three hundred foxes. Turning them tail to tail, he tied between each pair of tails one of the torches he had at hand. He then kindled the torches and set the foxes loose in the standing grain of the Philistines, thus burning both the shocks and the standing grain, and the vineyards and olive orchards as well. When the Philistines asked who had done this, they were told, “Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because his wife was taken and given to his best man.” So the Philistines went up and destroyed her and her family by fire. Samson said to them, “If this is how you act, I will not stop until I have taken revenge on you.” And with repeated blows, he inflicted a great slaughter on them. Then he went down and remained in a cavern of the cliff of Etam (Judges 15,1-8).

The Scripture speaks more of foxes in other circumstances. They are animals of harm, ruin, devastation and failure. They certainly do not produceany good.

Catch us the foxes, the little foxes that damage the vineyards; for our vineyards are in bloom! (Songs 2, 15). That Mount Zion should be desolate, with jackals roaming there! (Lam 5, 18). Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said: “It is a rubble heap they are building. Any fox that attacked it would breach their wall of stones!” (Ne 3, 35).

Herod is said by Jesus: “That fox.” He is a person that cares only about his interests. That thinks about his court. that loves neither God and nor his subjects. That only follows his immoral instincts. He could killed John the Baptist because his time had come. He can do nothing against Him, because his time has not come, and also because He can only die in Jerusalem. His death does not fall under his jurisdiction by the will of the Father. That is how the Father decided and that is how it is going to happen.

At that time some Pharisees came to him and said, “Go away, leave this area because Herod wants to kill you.” He replied, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and I perform healings today and tomorrow, and on the third day I accomplish my purpose. Yet I must continue on my way today, tomorrow, and the following day, for it is impossible that a prophet should die outside of Jerusalem.’ “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how many times I yearned to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were unwilling! Behold, your house will be abandoned. (But) I tell you, you will not see me until (the time comes when) you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'”

Jerusalem is the city that kills the prophets and stones the sent by God. In the past, the Lord redeemed and saved it several times. Today, the measure is full. He will leave the city forever. Now, they will be the owners of their house. God will get our of it forever.

Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who depend upon horses: Who put their trust in chariots because of their number, and in horsemen because od their combined power, But look not to the Holy One of Israel nor seek the Lord! Yet he too is wise and will bring disaster; he will not turn from what he has threatened to do. He will rise up against the house of the wicked and against those who help evildoers. The Egyptians are men, not God, their horses are flesh, not spirit; When the Lord stretches forth his hand, the helper shall stumble, the one helped shall fall, and both of them shall perish together. Thus says the Lord to me: As a lion or a lion cub growling over its prey, With a band of shepherds assembled against it, Is neither frightened by their shouts nor disturbed by their noise, So shall the Lord of hosts come down to wage war upon the mountain and hill of Zion. Like hovering birds, so the Lord of hosts shall shield Jerusalem, To protect and deliver, to spare and rescue it” (Is 31,1-5).

This prophecy of Isaiah will be fulfilled only when Israel will have been converted to his God.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints give us the truth of the prophecies.