1 Mac 2:15-29

Lk 19:41-44

November 19
Thursday

33rd Week in Ordinary Time

 

1st Reading: 1 Mac 2:15-29
    In the meantime, the king’s representatives, who were forcing the Jews to give up their religion came to Modein to organize a sacred gathering.
    While many Israelites went to them, Mattathias and his sons drew apart.
    The representatives of the king ad-dressed Mattathias, and said to him: “You are one of the leaders of this city, an important and well-known man, and your many children and relatives follow you. Come now and be the first to fulfill the king’s order, as the men of Judah have already done, and the survivors in Jerusalem as well. You and your sons will be named Friends of the King and the king will send you gold, silver and many other gifts.”
    But Mattathias answered in a loud voice: “Even if all the nations included in the kingdom should abandon the religion of their ancestors and submit to the order of King Antiochus, I, my sons and my family will remain faithful to the Covenant of our ancestors. May God preserve us from abandoning the Law and its precepts. We will not obey the orders of the king nor turn aside from our religion either to the right or to the left.”
    When he finished speaking these words, a Jew came forward in the sight of everyone to offer incense on the altar that was built in Modein according to the king’s decree. When Mattathias saw him, he was fired with zeal, his heart was stirred, and giving vent to his righteous anger, he threw himself on the Jew and cut the man’s throat on the altar. At the same time, he killed the king’s representative who was forcing the people to offer sacrifice, and then tore down the altar. In doing this he showed his zeal for the Law, as Phinehas had done with Zimri, son of Salu.
    Mattathias then began to proclaim loudly in the city: “Everyone who is zealous for the Law and supports the Covenant, come out and follow me!” Immediately he and his sons fled to the mountains and left behind all they had in the city.
    Many Jews who looked for justice and wanted to be faithful to the Law went into the desert.

 

Gospel: Lk 19:41-44
    When Jesus had come in sight of Jerusalem, he wept over it and said, “If only today you knew the ways of peace! But now your eyes are held from seeing. Yet days will come upon you when your enemies will surround you with barricades and shut you in and press on you from every side. And they will dash you to the ground and your children with you, and leave not a stone within you, for you did not recognize the time and the visitation of your God.”

REFLECTION
    Martin Luther King once said:  “Let us believe that we have cosmic companionship…..that the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. Truth, crushed to earth, will rise again. No lie can live forever!” All throughout history, the way of peace and love has always won. Sure, there have been, and still are, tyrants and for a time they can seem invincible; but in the end, they always fall. Let’s remember that whenever we’re in doubt as to whether the way of peace and love is God’s way. That’s just the way the world is meant to be.
    Bad things that happen to us in our lives are trivial, when we consider that God is standing with us on the beach, breathing into the hurricane and yearning to breathe in and through us. In the face of the hurricane of injustice, we must never forget that the message that there is a reality, greater than ourselves, that is making a difference is deeper than the message of us making a difference…..and that this reality invites us to say “yes” to participate in the process. So, if peace is the answer, it can’t be a stupid question!

 

Additional Meditation Links:

The Word Among Us http://www.wau.org/meditations/current/

Fullness of Life http://www.junmanacsa.blogspot.com

 

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 50:1b-2, 5-6, 14-15

R. (23b) To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
God the LORD has spoken and summoned the earth,
from the rising of the sun to its setting.
From Zion, perfect in beauty,
God shines forth.
R.  To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
“Gather my faithful ones before me,
those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”
And the heavens proclaim his justice;
for God himself is the judge.
R.  To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
“Offer to God praise as your sacrifice
and fulfill your vows to the Most High;
Then call upon me in time of distress;
I will rescue you, and you shall glorify me.”
R.  To the upright I will show the saving power of God.

Sources:

http://www.bible.claret.org/

http://www.usccb.org/nab

 

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Thu, 19 Nov

DAILY WORD

1 Mac 2:15-29

Lk 19:41-44

Jesus said: If only today you knew the ways of peace! But now your eyes are held from seeing

source: http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/Dailywordviatext/

 

 

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