Hanukkah and the Maccabean Revolt
Our “elder brothers in the faith” begin Hanukkah at sunset tonight — the feast of tabernacles and the re-dedication of the Temple. It is a celebration that brings to us the prefigurement of Christ in the person of Judah Maccabeus, the return of the holy lamp stand, the menorah, and the freedom of religion suppressed by the Seleucid king, Antiochus Epiphanes.
This celebration of light also corresponds this year with the beginning of our Christmas novena — and we have more reason to remember how much it takes to preserve religious liberty and how easily it can be lost when good men do nothing.
The Maccabean Martyrs and Freedom of Conscience
Please pray for our nation and all people who suffer under the oppression of darkness, a darkness that desires to smite each soul’s inviolate right to a free conscience.
The Church still honors the Holy Maccabean Martyrs each year on August 1st — the mother and her seven sons who, according to 2 Maccabees 7, chose death under Antiochus Epiphanes rather than betray their conscience by breaking God’s law. Their witness is why we still pray for every soul’s God-given right to follow a free conscience.
The Maccabean Martyrs, pray for us!