by Rev. Herbert Nichols

The lectionary this week gives us a survey and a happy ending in the book of Maccabees to the evil King Antiochus. I suppose it easy for us to think of tyrants coming to a miserable end. We might even feel hatred and resentment in our desire that they come to justice.

The small faithful remnant of Jews led by the Maccabees certainly experienced some of these feelings. More than anything they prayed that God work his justice against the King. Today’s first reading demonstrates the power of God at work in his people who remain faithful to Him.

We have no need to be envious or resentful. God’s love and generosity are big enough for all of us. Justice belongs to God and it is up to him to work it out in his own way. If our hearts are open and humble to realize that God favors the simple and humble who have learned to depend completely on him. No matter what problems we may encounter in life, the turning point for us will come in the moment which Antiochus feared, and which we should welcome, namely death.

Death is crossing the threshold of hope. Death is leaping into the arms of a loving God. Death is not the end but a beginning; not a conclusion, but a passage. Of course it is one that we never are permitted to initiate. It is God’s prerogative to say when the time is now.