Episode 504 - Cry out to Jesus even when others silence you

<p><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1maccabees/1?10">1 Mc 1:10-15, 41-43, 54-57, 62-63</a></p> <p>[From the descendants of Alexander’s officers]<br> there sprang a sinful offshoot, Antiochus Epiphanes,<br> son of King Antiochus, once a hostage at Rome.<br> He became king in the year one hundred and thirtyseven<br> of the kingdom of the Greeks.</p> <p>In those days there appeared in Israel<br> men who were breakers of the law,<br> and they seduced many people, saying:<br> “Let us go and make an alliance with the Gentiles all around us;<br> since we separated from them, many evils have come upon us.”<br> The proposal was agreeable;<br> some from among the people promptly went to the king,<br> and he authorized them to introduce the way of living<br> of the Gentiles.<br> Thereupon they built a gymnasium in Jerusalem<br> according to the Gentile custom.<br> They covered over the mark of their circumcision<br> and abandoned the holy covenant;<br> they allied themselves with the Gentiles<br> and sold themselves to wrongdoing.</p> <p>Then the king wrote to his whole kingdom that all should be one people,<br> each abandoning his particular customs.<br> All the Gentiles conformed to the command of the king,<br> and many children of Israel were in favor of his religion;<br> they sacrificed to idols and profaned the sabbath.</p> <p>On the fifteenth day of the month Chislev,<br> in the year one hundred and forty-five,<br> the king erected the horrible abomination<br> upon the altar of burnt offerings<br> and in the surrounding cities of Judah they built pagan altars.<br> They also burned incense at the doors of the houses and in the streets.<br> Any scrolls of the law which they found they tore up and burnt.<br> Whoever was found with a scroll of the covenant,<br> and whoever observed the law,<br> was condemned to death by royal decree.<br> But many in Israel were determined<br> and resolved in their hearts not to eat anything unclean;<br> they preferred to die rather than to be defiled with unclean food<br> or to prof