Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
Shebna was the master of the palace for Hezekiah, king of Judah, in 700 B.C. In that role, he oversaw the personnel of the royal palace and directed all routine palace operations, including granting access to the king. But Shebna proved to be a disgrace. His corruption was condemned by the prophet Isaiah, who received an oracle for him (cf. Isaiah 22:15-25): “The LORD shall hurl you down headlong, mortal man! He shall grip you firmly, and roll you up and toss you like a ball into a broad land. There you will die, there with the chariots you glory in, you disgrace to your master’s house!” Shebna’s departure was a relief for the suffering people of Judah. Isaiah’s oracle held still more good news: the next master of the palace would be a righteous man, Eliakim, and his position would be secure. “I will fix him as a peg in a firm place,” Isaiah foretold. But that was not all. Eliakim, too, would be corrupted in turn, like all the rest, and his firm rule would not last: “On that day, says the LORD of hosts, the peg fixed in a firm place shall give way, break off and fall.”
The succession of good and bad masters of the palace finds its fulfillment in the mastery of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, the only leader whose goodness remains eternally firm and unmixed with evil. Meanwhile, Christ’s followers who are still on earth must negotiate the succession of good and bad leaders, of personal successes and failures, and of spiritual consolations and desolations. St. Ignatius advises someone struggling in desolation to remember that “consolation will soon return” (Spiritual Exercises 321), and someone who enjoys consolation should “consider how he will conduct himself during the time of ensuing desolation, and store up a supply of strength as defense against that day” (Spiritual Exercises 323).