33RD WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
Psalter: Week 4 / (Red)
St. Andrew Dung-Lac, priest & Companions, martyrs
1 Chr 29:10bcd, 11abc, 11d-12a, 12bcd
We praise your glorious name, O mighty God.
1st Reading: 1 Mac 4:3-37, 52-59
But Judas learned of this. So he went out with his men to attack the king’s army in Emmaus, while the enemy troops were still dispersed outside the camp. Gorgias arrived at the camp of the Jews by night but found no one there. He then began to search for them in the mountains, for he thought: “They are running away from us.”
But at daybreak, Judas appeared in the plain with three thousand men who had not the armor or swords they would have liked. They saw the camp of the pagans with its strong fortifications and the cavalry surrounding it—all trained men in war. Judas said to his men: “Do not fear the number of the enemy or be afraid of their attack. Remember how our ancestors were saved at the Red Sea when Pharaoh’s army pursued them. Cry out to God, for, if he so wishes, he will remember his Covenant and destroy that army before us this very day. And all the nations will know that Someone saves and liberates Israel.”
The pagans looked up and saw the Jews coming down against them, so they came out of their camp to face them in battle. Judas had the trumpets sounded and his men attacked. The pagans were defeated and fled to the plain, but all the rear guard fell by the sword. They pursued them to Gazara, to the plains of Idumea, of Azot and Jamnia and killed about three thousand of the enemy.
When Judas and his army stopped chasing them, he said to the men with him: “Do not think of the booty now, for another battle awaits us. Gorgias with his army is in the hills close by. Remain ready to fight them, and, afterward you can gather the plunder with nothing to worry about.” He had barely finished speaking when an army detachment appeared on the hillside. These men saw that their own troops had fled and their camp had been destroyed, for the smoke that rose up from the camp was enough to tell them this. So they were terrified. And when they saw the army of Judas drawn up on the plain ready for battle, they fled to the land of the Philistines.
So Judas and his men returned to plunder the camp. They carried off valuable booty. And on their return, they sang and praised heaven: For he is good, and his mercy is eternal.
That day was a great victory for Israel. The pagans who had escaped went to Lysias and told him what had happened. When he heard this, he was dismayed and depressed because things in Israel had not gone as expected, and he had not carried out the king’s command.
The following year, he organized an army of sixty thousand men and five thousand cavalry to confront the Jews. They advanced into Idumea and encamped at Bethzur. Judas came out with ten thousand men to meet them in battle. When he saw their military strength, he prayed, “Blessed are you, Savior of Israel, who broke the warrior’s strength by the hand of your servant David, and handed over the camp of the Philistines to the power of Jonathan, son of Saul, and to his armor-bearer.
In the same way, give this army into the hands of your people Israel, and let the confidence they place in their power and in their horses be destroyed. Fill them with fear. Shatter their confidence in their own strength. May they be defeated and recover no more. Deliver them to the sword of your faithful people so that all who know you may praise your name.”
Both sides attacked, and five thou sand men from the army of Lysias fell dead. Lysias saw that his army was disheartened, while Judas and his men grew bolder and were ready to live or to die nobly. So he retreated to Antioch, where he recruited mercenaries to strengthen his army, for he planned to return to Judea.
Then Judas and his brothers said: “Our enemies are defeated, so let us go up and purify the Holy Place and consecrate it again.” And all the army assembled and went up to Mount Zion.
On the twenty-fifth day of the month of Chislev, in the year one hundred and forty-eight (in the year 164 B.C.) they arose at dawn and offered the sacrifice prescribed by the law on the new altar of holocausts which they had built. It was precisely at that same time and date that the pagans had profaned it before; but now they consecrated it with songs, accompanied by zithers, harps and cymbals. All the people fell prostrate and blessed Heaven that had given them happiness and success. They celebrated the consecration of the altar for eight days, joyfully offering holocausts and celebrating sacrifices of thanksgiving and praise. The front of the temple was adorned with crowns of gold and shields; and the gates and the rooms had been restored and fitted with doors.
There was no end to the celebration among the people; and so the profanation of the temple by the pagans was forgotten. Finally, Judas, his brothers and the whole assembly of Israel agreed to celebrate the anniversary of the consecration of the altar annually for eight days, from the twenty-fifth of the month of Chislev, in high festivity.
Gospel: Lk 19:45-48
Then Jesus entered the temple area and began to drive out the merchants. And he said to them, “God says in the Scriptures, My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have turned it into a den of robbers!“
Jesus was teaching every day in the temple. The chief priests and teachers of the law wanted to kill him, and the elders of the Jews as well, but they were unable to do anything, for all the people were listening to him and hanging on his words.
REFLECTION:
For the Jews, their temple is an important and sacred place. It is where God meets his people and lives among them. Unfortunately, their temple suffered desecration from the hands of the gentiles as narrated to us in the First Reading, and even from the Jews themselves as we have seen in the Gospel Reading. It needed Judas to purify and re-dedicate the temple desecrated by the Gentiles. It needed Jesus, prefigured by Judas in the First Reading, to cleanse the temple that the Jews turned to a “den of thieves“.
There is a similarity between the temple and our soul, which by baptism becomes temple of the Holy Spirit. The condition of the desecrated temple is the same as the condition of a soul desecrated by sin. The purification and re-dedication of the temple resembles the sacrament of Reconciliation. As purification cleanses the temple, so reconciliation cleanses the soul from the stain of sins.
As we make our physical church clean and a conducive place to communion with God, let us also make our souls clean and a conducive place where God can meet us and make his dwelling in us.
Daily Reflection
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Biblical Texts are taken from Christian Community Bible, Catholic Pastoral Edition (57th Edition) The New English Translation for the ROMAN MISSAL
With permission from the EPISCOPAL COMMISION ON LITURGY of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines
Readings and Reflections
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