20. November 2023, General Week 32nd - MONDAY FIRST READING "This is how great anger fell upon Israel" Reading of the first book of the Martyrs of Israel 1, 10-15.41-43.54-57.62-64

20. November 2023, General Week 32nd - MONDAY 

FIRST READING 

"This is how great anger fell upon Israel" 

Reading of the first book of the Martyrs of Israel 1, 10-15.41-43.54-57.62-64 

In those days,

    from the descendants of the successors of Alexander the Great

arose a man of sin, Antiocos Epiphanes,

son of King Antiocos the Great.

He had stayed in Rome as a hostage,

and he became king in the year 137 of the Greek Empire.

    At that time, there arose in Israel men who were unfaithful to the Law,

and they deceived many people,

for they said,

“Come, let us make a covenant with the nations around us.

Indeed, since we broke with them,

we have had a lot of misfortune. "

    This language seemed sensible,

    and some, in the people,

hastened to the king.

This enabled them to adopt the customs of the nations.

    They built a gymnasium in Jerusalem,

according to the custom of the nations;

    they blotted out the traces of their circumcision,

denied the holy covenant,

joined with the people of the nations,

and sold themselves to do evil.

    King Antiocos ordered

all the inhabitants of his kingdom

to form henceforth only one people,

        and to abandon their particular customs.

All the heathen nations followed this order. Many in

    Israel

willingly followed the king's religion,

offered sacrifices to idols,

and profaned the Sabbath.

    On the fifteenth day of the ninth month, in the year 145,

Antiochus raised up on the altar of sacrifice

the Abomination of desolation,

and in the cities of Judah around Jerusalem

his followers erected pagan altars.

    They burned incense at the doors of houses

and in the squares.

    All the books of the Fa that they discovered,

they threw them into the fire after having lacerated them.

    If a book of the Covenant was found in someone,

if someone was obeying the Law,

the king's decree had him put to death. 

    However, many in Israel resisted

and had the courage not to eat any unclean food.

    They agreed to die

so as not to be defiled by what they ate,

and not to profane the Holy Covenant;

and in fact, they died.

    So great anger fell upon Israel. 

            - Word of the Lord.