1 Maccabees 6:1-13; 9:2-3, 4 & 6, 16 & 19
Psalm 9:2-3, 4 & 6, 16 & 19
Luke 20:27-40
Summary
“Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relents
from punishing.” (Joel 2:13)
Reflection
In the first reading from Maccabees, we read of greedy King Antiochus, who
plunders different lands to obtain riches without regard for their inhabitants.
Upon hearing that the children of Israel had become strong in spite of his attacks
and that they had re-taken their sanctuary and their city, he is overwhelmed with
sorrow and anxiety, knowing that his plans have failed and he is going to die.
The Responsorial Psalm gives us another take on these points by stating that for
those doing unkind deeds, their feet are caught in their own snare that they set,
while the needy will not be forgotten and the hope of the afflicted will never per-
ish.
As I read the first reading, I couldn’t help but think that ‘mean old’ King Antio-
chus was nothing but a bully. As he speaks to his ‘friends’ while on his
deathbed he states that he “recalls the evils he did in Jerusalem... carrying away
all of the vessels of gold and silver… for no cause, while also giving orders that
the inhabitants of Judah be destroyed. He further states that he understands that
it is because of these actions that he has been overtaken, “dying, in bitter grief,
in a foreign land”. As we fast-forward from Biblical times to the present, we are
too often presented with horrific instances of bullying on school campuses, which
have resulted in suicide, or suicidal attempts by those being bullied. Is there any
difference between the actions of King Antiochus and our ‘modern-day’ school-
yard bully? The actions of the bully echo the words spoken by King Antiochus
himself, and certainly were committed “for no cause”, other than to give the bully
a greater sense of power, prestige, and/or possession. Anti-bullying campaigns
have sprung up on school campuses in an attempt to curb this horrific, demean-