The readings from today are a bit disturbing; they speak of the end times, what we call “the end of the world.” In our scriptures it is repeatedly referred to as the “Day of the Lord.” The First Reading is from Malachi (Mal. 3:19-20a), the last prophetic book of the Old Testament in the Catholic Canon. This book was composed during the post-exilic period after the people of Judah had been returned from exile in Babylon. Despite the punishment of…..
In the First Reading from the Book of 2Maccabees we have an excerpt from the story of The Martyrdom of a Mother and her Seven Sons. This event would have taken place at the time of the Greek occupation of Israel under the ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes in the 2nd century BCE. As an attempt to unify the territories of his massive conquests, Antiochus was forcefully coercing the people now under Greek rule to conform to his Hellenistic culture which…..
The readings for Sunday, November 3, 2019 offer us some advice to consider. The first reading from the Book of Wisdom (Wisdom 11:22-12:1) speaks of the mercy and forgiveness of our Lord. It reminds us that we are small and insignificant as compared to the ways of God. Even the whole entire world cannot “more than tip a balance, like a drop of morning dew falling on the ground” (Wisdom 11:22). Yet God loves all that exists, all that He…..