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Morning Meditation
November 24, 2025
Catherine of Alexandria, Barbara of Nicomedia & Margaret of Antioch - Martyrs, c. 300
Reading: Judith 12:16-13-12
Then Judith came in and lay down. Holofernes’s heart was ravished with her and his passion was aroused, for he had been waiting for an opportunity to be with her from the day he first saw her. So Holofernes said to her, “Have a drink and be merry with us!” Judith said, “I will gladly drink, my lord, because today is the greatest day in my whole life.” Then she took what her maid had prepared and ate and drank before him. Holofernes was greatly pleased with her and drank a great quantity of wine, much more than he had ever drunk in any one day since he was born.
When evening came, his slaves quickly withdrew. Bagoas closed the tent from outside and shut out the attendants from his master’s presence. They went to bed, for they all were weary because the banquet had lasted so long. But Judith was left alone in the tent, with Holofernes stretched out on his bed, for he was dead drunk.
Now Judith had told her maid to stand outside the bedchamber and to wait for her to come out, as she did on the other days, for she said she would be going out for her prayers. She had said the same thing to Bagoas. So everyone went out, and no one, either small or great, was left in the bedchamber. Then Judith, standing beside his bed, said in her heart, “O Lord God of all might, look in this hour on the work of my hands for the exaltation of Jerusalem. Now indeed is the time to help your heritage and to carry out my design to destroy the enemies who have risen up against us.”
She went up to the bedpost near Holofernes’s head and took down his sword that hung there. She came close to his bed, took hold of the hair of his head, and said, “Give me strength today, O Lord God of Israel!” Then she struck his neck twice with all her might and cut off his head. Next she rolled his body off the bed and pulled down the canopy from the posts. Soon afterward she went out and gave Holofernes’s head to her maid, who placed it in her food bag.
Then the two of them went out together, as they were accustomed to do for prayer. They passed through the camp, circled around the valley, went up the mountain to Bethulia, and came to its gates. From a distance Judith called out to the sentries at the gates, “Open, open the gate! God, our God, is with us, still showing his power in Israel and his strength against our enemies, as he has done today!”
When the people of her town heard her voice, they hurried down to the town gate and summoned the elders of the town.
Meditation by Jeremy O’Neill
If you aren’t super familiar with the Book of Judith, that may have something to do with the fact that it only appears in the Lectionary on a few feast days. Judith is one of the Deuterocanonical books, meaning that it is considered a part of the Biblical Canon by the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches but left out by Rabbinic Judaism and most Protestants. The passage we read today is quite a striking one. It tells a bawdy story of Judith cutting off the head of an intoxicated Holofernes, which then results in the cities of Bethulia and nearby Jerusalem being spared from siege.
Aspects of this story have the moral lesson of classic fable. It is Holofernes’s objectification of a woman combined with his overindulgence that results in his downfall, and Judith is rewarded as a cunning hero. While I do believe that there is wisdom to be gained from this, I would argue that the story demands further discernment from us.
Any time we read from the Apocrypha, an interesting question about the authority of scripture arises before we even get into the content of the passage. That is because the inclusion of this selection of books in the Bible has been debated for centuries. Therefore, what authority do we give these books in comparison to other parts of scripture?
While this story may give us some lessons we might be able to apply to our lives, it is also a fantastical story. Scholars doubt the historicity of the events, and upon first reading the events come across as almost absurd. This then begs the question: is scripture there to tell us about ourselves or about God?
The Bible, in its many forms, is a collection of stories. It starts “in the beginning” and ends with “Amen.” We are given the power of interpretation and discernment of what to do with these stories. Let us treat them as a gift, whether they challenge us, comfort us, or confuse us.
Prayer
Embolden your church, O God, with the stories of your saints Catherine, Barbara, and Margaret, that we might face all trials and adversities with a fearless mind and an unbroken spirit, knowing that we are more than conquerors through Jesus Christ who strengthens us. Through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
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