Nothing Like History to See the Future

Good Morning Brothers and Sistes !

Part of this mornings readings are from Maccabees ( 1 Mc 1:10-15, 41-43, 54-57, 62-63 ) .

I find this reading interesting as with many things we must look to our past in order to learn where it is we are going and what we need to avoid doing again.

In this reading, we find the some of the Isrealites complaining about their lives and how it is that things have not gone well for them with the Greeks.  They get the great idea that they will just give in and give the Greeks what they want, which was to give up their own ways and beliefs and start being like the Gentiles.

It starts that they build a gymnasium, and the covering up the marks of their faith so to make things nice and generic.  Next someone goes to the King and says we just wanna get along.. so the King says.. OK.. everyone is now the same.

Once everyone starts being the same, things get changed to OK you  have to believe in these pagan gods and we are going to take down the other temples.. and oh yea  just in case you thought that wasnt enough, we also will be killed for having anything sacred or scripture scrolls, or if you dont eat the unclean food that you know you shouldnt.

Lets see, what did we learn from this ?    Well there was the Exodus..  after the exodus from Egypt, what did they do ?  Well, someone complained,  decided to turn from God,  create pagan gods and started giving themselves over to sin and death.  Next thing you know, God had to give them a little reminder that He alone was God.

Then there is this bunch in Maccabees… same deal.  Someone decided they didnt like the fact that God made them feel different, and didnt want to make things difficult.  Next thing you know.. things go to pot, they are trying to make everything easy. everything the same..  but this does not work either..

Fast forward over a thousand or so years.. there is the Holocost, Someone decides they are not happy, they want to make everything the same, they try to remove God from their existence and yet, we still haven’t quite gotten the picture.

We are here in the present day, we have politicians and activists who are busy trying to remove God from everything they can manage to legally do.    And when its not legal any more.. look we can change the law to make it more legal to get God out of our lives.      It makes one wonder exactly how many times we have to go through this excercise before we get the picture that its not such a good thing to try to get God out of our lives !

If you believe in God, if you are a Christian, you need to begin your own personal mission to bring God into your lives, and the lives of others, and to be vocal about standing up and protecting your priviledge and right to have God in your lives.