Sharing the Word for November 23, 2017

Thursday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time

November 23, 2017

Daily Reading from the USCCB: 1 Maccabees 2:15-29

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In today’s reading we see the agents of King Antiochus trying to force Jews into wholesale apostasy. In response Mattathias and his family refuse, and undertake armed resistance. Mattathias’s leadership gives rise to a widespread revolt that eventually results in the expulsion of the Greeks from Israel’s land, and restores their independence.

As was the case in Mattathias’s life, so also in the lives of faithful people in subsequent ages. There are times when people must say no: no to themselves, no to their friends, no to the people with whom they work, no to the society in which they live.

Sometimes saying no is hard, costly, embarrassing. But not saying no when no is called for is even more demanding in the long run.