Saturday 22 November 2025
St Cecilia
1 Maccabees 6:1-13. I will rejoice in your salvation, O Lord – Ps 9A:2-4, 6, 16, 19. Luke 20:27-40.
God’s judgment
Sometimes in the Old Testament, God’s actions play out through human agency. Antiochus Epiphanes is one of the most vile opponents of the Jews that we encounter, seemingly set on their destruction. Maccabees depicts his comeuppance as justice for all that he has done. Despite this, neither he nor his armies are truck down from on high or by any other obvious divine action. Instead, he is undone by his own greed. Having sacked the Temple, he sets his eyes on another great prize. Dividing his efforts brings ruination. He fails to take Elymais and while he was on this quest his armies in Judah were turned back. This is a common portrait in Scripture. To borrow the language of Exodus, God sometimes judges us through our own hardened hearts, habituated to the vices that we’ve cultivated, and the stupid decisions they lead us into.
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