In particularly difficult times of upheaval, some were able to defy death to defend the Temple and purify the altar. And we, having the Blessed Sacrament always at our disposal in the churches… how do we act?
Newsroom (21/05/2025 15:29, Gaudium Press) In his first Epistle, St. John says that ‘there are three who bear witness: the Spirit, water and blood’ (5:7-8). And each of them corresponds to one of the three ways of entering Heaven: by the Baptism of desire, the fruit of the Holy Spirit; by the Baptism of blood, which is martyrdom; and by the ordinary way, the Baptism of water.
Of these three testimonies, that of blood occupies a special place, because for someone to overcome their instinct for self-preservation and defy death out of love for Our Lord Jesus Christ and for Religion – even if they do not actually die – requires a very special grace.
However, a soul that does not always live for God and the Church will hardly be able to respond to such an insignificant grace in the hour of threat. A glance at the pages of Sacred Scripture will serve as a guide for meditating on this truth.
The tyranny of Antiochus Epiphanes
Among the countless exploits contained in the two books of the Maccabees, perhaps none causes us as much admiration as the purification of the Temple and the rebuilding of the altar of burnt offerings. The episode, narrated in the first book, takes place more or less 175 years before the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ into the world.
Many years after the death of Alexander the Great, King Antiochus IV Epiphanes, known by the sacred author as the ‘root of sin’ (1 Mac 1:11), invaded and conquered Jerusalem, bringing days of great persecution to the Hebrew people, who were the custodians of divine promises. According to the Scriptures, this calamity was also the result of the unfaithfulness of the Jews themselves, some of whom had seduced their co-religionists into adopting pagan customs, moving away from the precepts of the Law.
It would be too long to explain in this article all the abominations committed at that time. Suffice it to mention that, as a punishment, the Lord delivered into the hands of the wicked Antiochus the greatest pride of the Jews, a sign of the Covenant he kept with His people: the Temple of Jerusalem.
The tyrant “entered the sanctuary full of pride, took the golden altar, the lampstand with all its belongings, the tabernacle, the vessels, the implements, the golden censers, the veil, the crowns, the golden ornaments of the façade, and tore out the inlays. He took the silver, gold, precious vessels and hidden treasures he found. Taking everything with him, he returned to his own land after massacring many Jews and uttering insulting words. This was a cause of extreme desolation for all Israel” (1 Mac 1:21-25).
However, the persecution did not stop there. Like all the other peoples subjected to Antiochus’ rule, the Jews were required by royal decree to adopt the idolatrous religion of the pagans, with death being the punishment for disobedience. Many gave in, but some resisted. And this is where Mattathias and his sons come into the picture.
The insurrection of the faithful souls
Mattathias was a respected priest from Joarib’s family and lived in Modin, a town about forty kilometres north-west of Jerusalem. The king’s emissaries arrived there with orders to force the inhabitants of the region to sacrifice to idols.
The insurrection of Mattathias, ‘in the ardour of his zeal’ and ‘in a fit of righteous anger’ (I Macc 2:24), killed with his own hands both the royal emissary and the first Jew of that place who wanted to apostatize from the true religion. This is part of the pages that every Catholic should read in the Scriptures and is the milestone with which the struggle of the Maccabees for the liberation of their people begins.
Banished from their villages, refugees in deserts, organized into bands or even armies, the epic of the Maccabean brothers and their armed resistance against the persecution of the wicked was crowned with success. The Scriptures say of Judas, who took command of the troops of Israel after the death of Mattathias:
“He resembled a lion in his actions and looked like a young lion roaring in the hunt. He carefully pursued and hunted down the traitors and cast those who persecuted his people into the fire. The wicked recoiled before him in fear, those who did evil trembled and the salvation of the people was placed in his hands. His deeds exasperated the kings, but they rejoiced in Jacob, and his memory remained blessed forever” (1 Mac 3:4-7).
Little by little, that band of faithful souls overcame both internal enemies and external dangers, and reconquered Jerusalem, the Holy City.
Victory and purification of the Temple
After the definitive victory over the pagans, the sacred text says that Judas and his brothers went up to Mount Zion and there ‘beheld the desolation of the holy places, the altar desecrated, the gates burnt, the courts full of bushes that had sprung up as in a forest or on the hills, the chambers demolished’ (I Macc 4:38).
Deeply dismayed, they set out to purify the Temple and re-consecrate it, choosing ‘priests without blemish and zealous for the Law’ (1 Mac 4:42). They remodelled the entire sanctuary, provided the sacred vessels and furnishings for worship, built a new altar of burnt offerings and offered sacrifices there.
The celebrations for the dedication of the altar went on for eight days, and ‘great joy reigned among the people’ (1 Macc 4:58).
A symbol of union with God
These events so united these men and women that, by divine inspiration, Judas decreed that the date should be celebrated every year, in memory of the purification of the Temple and the rebuilding of the altar. In this way, they sealed their unanimous desire to live for the Lord.
It is beautiful to note that their first concern was not to celebrate the victory, but to take care of the Temple that had been desecrated. And why was that? Because their lives revolved around what symbolized their union with God: the altar.
And here there is a valuable lesson for us. We mentioned earlier the testimony of blood, a remarkable grace. Well then, the best way to be faithful when this testimony becomes necessary – as the Maccabean brothers did – is to live now and at all times in function of the altar.
May our hearts always be in God
Let us now turn to another passage of Scripture and analyze the scene in which Our Lord Jesus Christ, many years later, enters this same Temple restored by the Maccabees (cf. Mk 11:15-18; Mt 21:12-13; Lk 19:45-46). What does He find there? People exchanging money, selling and buying various goods… In short, people who do not live for the altar, but for their own selfishness. Our Lord treats them harshly, saying: ‘My house is a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves’ (Mt 21:13). Then comes the scene of the expulsion, well known to all.
Comparing this Gospel scene with the one narrated in the First Book of Maccabees, we might ask ourselves which one bears more resemblance to our personal reality.
Are we like Judas Maccabaeus and his followers, who lived around the altar, or are we like those who, out of selfishness, desecrated the Temple?
Today, how many places of worship do we have at our disposal? How easily can we enter a church to pray? How lavishly does the Saviour fulfil His promise to be with us every day until the end of time (cf. Mt 28:20), patiently enclosing Himself in thousands of tabernacles all over the earth? But how do we behave in this regard? Like Judas Maccabaeus and his followers, who lived at the service of the altar, or like the Jews of Our Lord’s time, who decided to despise the Temple and, often even defiling it, to devote themselves to their own selfishness?
It is a tough question, but a necessary one, because there is desecration in its extreme, but also the process that leads to it. And the process begins when we forget the altar and start to live disconnected from it.
May these considerations serve us to examine our conscience and formulate the firm resolve to always have our hearts turned towards God, the Church and the life of grace, certain that the rest will be given to us in addition (cf. Lk 12:31).
Article taken from Heralds of the Gospel Magazine no. 281, May 2025. By Fr. Alex Barbosa de Brito, EP
Compiled by Sandra Chisholm
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