CCC Cross Reference:
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Reading 1
1 Mc 1:10-15, 41-43, 54-57, 62-63
[From the descendants of Alexander’s officers]
there sprang a sinful offshoot, Antiochus Epiphanes,
son of King Antiochus, once a hostage at Rome.
He became king in the year one hundred and thirty.seven
of the kingdom of the Greeks.
In those days there appeared in Israel
men who were breakers of the law,
and they seduced many people, saying:
“Let us go and make an alliance with the Gentiles all around us;
since we separated from them, many evils have come upon us.”
The proposal was agreeable;
some from among the people promptly went to the king,
and he authorized them to introduce the way of living
of the Gentiles.
Thereupon they built a gymnasium in Jerusalem
according to the Gentile custom.
They covered over the mark of their circumcision
and abandoned the holy covenant;
they allied themselves with the Gentiles
and sold themselves to wrongdoing.
Then the king wrote to his whole kingdom that all should be one people,
each abandoning his particular customs.
All the Gentiles conformed to the command of the king,
and many children of Israel were in favor of his religion;
they sacrificed to idols and profaned the sabbath.
On the fifteenth day of the month Chislev,
in the year one hundred and forty-five,
the king erected the horrible abomination
upon the altar of burnt offerings
and in the surrounding cities of Judah they built pagan altars.
They also burned incense at the doors of the houses and in the streets.
Any scrolls of the law which they found they tore up and burnt.
Whoever was found with a scroll of the covenant,
and whoever observed the law,
was condemned to death by royal decree.
But many in Israel were determined
and resolved in their hearts not to eat anything unclean;
they preferred to die rather than to be defiled with unclean food
or to profane the holy covenant; and they did die.
Terrible affliction was upon Israel.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 119:53, 61, 134, 150, 155, 158
R. (see 88) Give me life, O Lord, and I will do your commands.
Indignation seizes me because of the wicked
who forsake your law.
R. Give me life, O Lord, and I will do your commands.
Though the snares of the wicked are twined about me,
your law I have not forgotten.
R. Give me life, O Lord, and I will do your commands.
Redeem me from the oppression of men,
that I may keep your precepts.
R. Give me life, O Lord, and I will do your commands.
I am attacked by malicious persecutors
who are far from your law.
R. Give me life, O Lord, and I will do your commands.
Far from sinners is salvation,
because they seek not your statutes.
R. Give me life, O Lord, and I will do your commands.
I beheld the apostates with loathing,
because they kept not to your promise.
R. Give me life, O Lord, and I will do your commands.
Gospel
Lk 18:35-43
As Jesus approached Jericho
a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging,
and hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what was happening.
They told him,
“Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.”
He shouted, “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!”
The people walking in front rebuked him,
telling him to be silent,
but he kept calling out all the more,
“Son of David, have pity on me!”
Then Jesus stopped and ordered that he be brought to him;
and when he came near, Jesus asked him,
“What do you want me to do for you?”
He replied, “Lord, please let me see.”
Jesus told him, “Have sight; your faith has saved you.”
He immediately received his sight
and followed him, giving glory to God.
When they saw this, all the people gave praise to God.
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible
First reading 1 Maccabees 1:10 – 64
From these kings there grew a sinful offshoot, Antiochus Epiphanes, son of King Antiochus; once a hostage in Rome, he became king in the one hundred and thirty-seventh year of the kingdom of the Greeks. It was then that there emerged from Israel a set of renegades who led many people astray. ‘Come,’ they said ‘let us reach an understanding with the pagans surrounding us, for since we separated ourselves from them many misfortunes have overtaken us.’ This proposal proved acceptable, and a number of the people eagerly approached the king, who authorized them to practice the pagan observances. So they built a gymnasium in Jerusalem, such as the pagans have, disguised their circumcision, and abandoned the holy covenant, submitting to the heathen rule as willing slaves of impiety.
Then the king issued a proclamation to his whole kingdom that all were to become a single people, each renouncing his particular customs. All the pagans conformed to the king’s decree, and many Israelites chose to accept his religion, sacrificing to idols and profaning the sabbath. The king erected the abomination of desolation above the altar; and altars were built in the surrounding towns of Judah and incense offered at the doors of houses and in the streets. Any books of the Law that came to light were torn up and burned. Whenever anyone was discovered possessing a copy of the covenant or practicing the Law, the king’s decree sentenced him to death.
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 118(119):53,61,134,150,155,158
Give me life, O Lord, and I will do your will.
I am seized with indignation at the wicked
who forsake your law.
Though the nets of the wicked ensnared me
I remembered your law.
Give me life, O Lord, and I will do your will.
Redeem me from man’s oppression
and I will keep your precepts.
Those who harm me unjustly draw near;
they are far from your law.
Give me life, O Lord, and I will do your will.
Salvation is far from the wicked
who are heedless of your statutes.
I look at the faithless with disgust;
they ignore your promise.
Give me life, O Lord, and I will do your will.
Gospel Luke 18:35 – 43
Now as Jesus drew near to Jericho there was a blind man sitting at the side of the road begging. When he heard the crowd going past he asked what it was all about, and they told him that Jesus the Nazarene was passing by. So he called out, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me’. The people in front scolded him and told him to keep quiet, but he shouted all the louder, ‘Son of David, have pity on me’. Jesus stopped and ordered them to bring the man to him, and when he came up, asked him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ ‘Sir,’ he replied ‘let me see again.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Receive your sight. Your faith has saved you.’ And instantly his sight returned and he followed him praising God, and all the people who saw it gave praise to God for what had happened.
Readings and Commentary from the Navarre Bible
Monday of the 33rd Week in Ordinary Time
From: 1 Maccabees 1:10-15, 41-43, 54-57, 62-63
Alexander the Great and His Successors (Continuation)
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[10] From them (the descendants of Alexander the Great's officers) came forth a sinful root, Antiochus Epiphanes, son of Antiochus the king; he had been a hostage in Rome. He began to reign in the one hundred and thirty-seventh year of the kingdom of the Greeks.
Many Jews are Led Astray
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[11] In those days lawless men came forth from Israel, and misled many, saying, "Let us go and make a covenant with the Gentiles round about us, for since we separated from them many evils have come upon us." [12] This proposal pleased them, [13] and some of the people eagerly went to the king. He authorized them to observe the ordinances of the Gentiles. [14] So they built a gymnasium in Jerusalem, according to Gentile custom, [15] and removed the marks of circumcision, and abandoned the holy covenant. They joined with the Gentiles and sold themselves to do evil.
Observance of the Law is Proscribed
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[41] Then the king wrote to his whole kingdom that all should be one people, [42] and that each should give up his customs. [43] All the Gentiles accepted the command of the king. Many even from Israel gladly adopted his religion; they sacrificed to idols and profaned the sabbath.
The Temple Profaned, the Books of the Law Set on Fire. Religious Persecution
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[54] Now on the fifteenth day of Chislev, in the one hundred and forty-fifth year, they erected a desolating sacrilege upon the altar of burnt offering. They also built altars in the surrounding cities of Judah, [55] and burned incense at the doors of the houses and in the streets. [56] The books of the law which they found they tore to pieces and burned with fire. [57] Where the book of the covenant was found in the possession of any one, or if any one adhered to the law, the decree of the king condemned him to death.
[62] But many in Israel stood firm and were resolved in their hearts not to eat unclean food. [63] They chose to die rather than to be defiled by food or to profane the holy covenant; and they did die.
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Commentary:
1:1-64 Greek domination was a terrible trial for the Jewish people. During the Greek period they stayed loyal to the Covenant that God made with the patriarchs, defending it against the Greek religion and culture which were imposed on the East as a result of Alexander the Great's conquests. Pagan customs were introduced into Jerusalem and Judah, firstly, through the infidelity of many Jews who were attracted by the novelty and splendor of Hellenistic culture, and, secondly, because Antiochus Epiphanes tried to weld his territories together politically by imposing Greek civilization and religion. To do this in Judea he attacked the three pillars of the Jewish religion--the temple of Jerusalem; religious customs, particularly circumcision and the sabbath observance; and the books of the Law of Moses. It seemed inevitable that Judaism would disappear or else be merged with the Greek world, as happened in other Eastern nations influenced by Hellenism.
But, in fact,Israel kept its religious identity thanks to a special providence of God; this enabled it to continue to be the chosen people from whom would be born the Messiah, Jesus Christ. That is the message of the books of the Maccabees, a message perceived by Church tradition when it acknowledged them as being part of Holy Scripture. When speaking about these books, St Augustine was well aware that the Jews did not regard them as being on the same level as the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms, "but they [these books] will not have been received by the Church in vain if they are read or listened to calmly, and especially those parts that deal with the Maccabees themselves who, for the sake of God's Law, were true martyrs and suffered terrible and humiliating things" (St Augustine "Contra Gaudentium", 1, 31, 38).
1:1-10. "The land of Kittim" (in Greek, "khettim"), originally referred to the island of Cyprus, but it also applied to Greece and Macedonia. Alexander the Great died in Babylonia in the year 323 BC. His successors, called the Diadochi, fought among themselves over the division of the empire. Ptolemy I gained control of Egypt, and founded the dynasty of the Lagids. Seleucus, the first of the Seleucid kings, took Babylon. To begin with, Palestine was part of the Ptolemy domains, but in the year 197 BC, after the battle of Baniyas in which Egypt was defeated, it came under the control of the Seleucids. Antiochus IV Epiphanes, son of Anti ochus III and brother of Seleucus IV (cf. 2 Mac 4:7), had been sent to Rome by his father as a hostage (in accordance with the treaty of Apamea, 188 BC). The one hundred and thirty-seventh year, counting from 312 BC when the Seleucid dynasty was founded, was 175 BC.
1:11-15. Conforming to Greek ways was equivalent in that situation to turning one's back on the Lord and on the Covenant. Gymnasia were presided over by Greek gods, and "becoming like the Gentiles" involved disguising the signs of circumcision when taking part undressed in gymnasium sports. Belonging to the people of God entailed a moral lifestyle different from that of the Gentiles, just as being a member of the Church, the new people of God, requires a person to avoid practices and attitudes contrary to the natural law and Christian ethics.
Apropos of this, St Paul taught the first Christians: "We beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you learned from us how you ought to live and to please God, just as you are doing, you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from immorality; that each of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like heathen who do not know God" (1 Thess 4:1-5). "Reject the deception of those who appease themselves with the pathetic cry of 'Freedom! Freedom!' Their cry often masks a tragic enslavement because choices that prefer error do not liberate. Christ alone sets us free, for he alone is the Way, the Truth and the Life" (St. J. Escriva, "Friends of God", 26).
1:41-53. Up to this point the Jews have been governed by their own laws, which were both religious and civil. In order to unify his empire politically, Antiochus wants to impose a single form of religious practice. Those Jews who had a liking for things Greek had no difficulty in accepting the king's laws: they were already conforming to them, and now they became formal apostates of Judaism. Other Jews, maybe majority, conformed out of fear. But there were others still, whom the sacred writer sees as the true Israel (v. 53), who were forced to go underground to stay loyal to their religion.
1:54-64. The author recalls with great sadness the exact day when an altar, or perhaps a statue, dedicated to Zeus Olympus was erected in the temple of Jerusalem--8 December 167 BC. The revulsion God-fearing Jews felt towards that object can be seen from the name used to describe it--"a desolating sacrifice" ("abominatio desolationis", the abomination of desolation: cf. Dan 9:27; 11:31; 12:11). In Hebrew the words used sound like the name of the "Baal of the heavens", the Canaanite idol which Israelites in ancient times found so attractive and against which the prophets strove (cf. 1 Kings 18:20-40). But the phrase also, literally, means something abominable which leads to total perdition. It is, in the last analysis, a symbol of idolatrous worship which seeks to impose itself by force on worship of the true God. Our Lord Jesus Christ will use the very same expression, "desolating sacrifice", "abomination of desolation", to announce the tribulation which will overwhelm Jerusalem (as it indeed did when the Romans destroyed it in 70 AD) and which will be a sign of the tribulations that will happen at the end of time (cf. Mt 24:15-25 and par.).
The events narrated briefly here and the violence done to the Jews, as also exemplary acts of fidelity,are reported in more detail in 2 Maccabees 6:1-11, 18, 31; 7:1-42. It was a very testing time for Israel, a time of purging and purification. When God allows persecution to happen, he does so to elicit fidelity: this is true for Israel and later for the Church.
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From: Luke 18:35-43
The Cure of the Blind Man of Jericho
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[35] As He (Jesus) drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging; [36] and hearing a multitude going by, he inquired what this meant. [37] They told him, "Jesus of Nazareth is passing by." [38] And he cried, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" [39] And those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent; but he cried out all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" [40] And Jesus stopped, and commanded him to be brought to Him; and when he came near, He asked him, [41] "What do you want Me to do for you?" He said, "Lord, let me receive my sight." [42] And Jesus said to him, "Receive your sight; your faith has made you well." [43] And immediately he received his sight and followed Him, glorifying God; and all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.
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Commentary:
35-43. The blind man of Jericho is quick to use the opportunity presented by Christ's presence. We should not neglect the Lord's graces, for we do not know whether He will offer us them again. St. Augustine described very succinctly the urgency with which we should respond to God's gift, to His passing us on the road: "'Timeo Jesum praetereuntem et non redeuntem': I fear Jesus may pass by and not come back." For, at least on some occasion, in some way, Jesus passes close to everyone.
The blind man of Jericho acclaims Jesus as the Messiah--he gives Him the messianic title of Son of David--and asks Him to meet his need, to make him see. His is an active faith; he shouts out, he persists, despite the people getting in his way. And he manages to get Jesus to hear him and call him. God wanted this episode to be recorded in the Gospel, to teach us how we should believe and how we should pray -- with conviction, with urgency, with constancy, in spite of the obstacles, with simplicity, until we manage to get Jesus to listen to us.
"Lord, let me receive my sight": this simple ejaculatory prayer should be often on our lips, flowing from the depths of our heart. It is a very good prayer to use in moments of doubt and vacillation, when we cannot understand the reason behind God's plans, when the horizon of our commitment becomes clouded. It is even a good prayer for people who are sincerely trying to find God but who do not yet have the great gift of faith.
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Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and by Scepter Publishers in the United States. We encourage readers to purchase The Navarre Bible for personal study. See Scepter Publishers for details.
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