1 Maccabees, Chapter 9, Verse 6
When they saw the great number of the
troops, they were very much afraid,
and many slipped away from the camp, until only eight hundred of them remained.
The rats are the first to leave a sinking ship. You can tell when something is about to fail
because large numbers
of people begin to leave it. Death of Judas Maccabee[1]
Judas cleverly negotiated a treaty of alliance with Rome that recognized Judea as an independent state. For the first time since before the Babylonian exile, the Jews had their own sovereign nation. Demetrius feared a Rome-supported Judea might induce another of his inherited enemies, Egypt, to join the alliance and invade his empire through Judea. Basing his actions on reports that the Maccabean army was disbanding, Demetrius dispatched a 24,000-man expedition in the spring of 160 bc. Sure enough, Judas was unable to mobilize more than 3,000 troops. Joining battle at Elasa, about six miles east of Beth Horon, the armies clashed briefly before the Jewish warriors, demoralized by the eight-to-one odds, broke and fled, leaving their peerless commander with just 800 valiant veterans. Leading his small band in a desperate charge on the enemy’s right flank, Judas killed a great number of Seleucids but failed in the crucial objective of killing their commander, General Bacchides. Instead, Judas and his little group of loyalists were wiped out. It had taken the Syrians far too long, but in Bacchides they finally found a leader capable of concocting viable strategy and instilling needed flexibility into Syrian formations. Considering the overpowering numerical advantage the Syrians enjoyed in that April clash, it could be said the Maccabees were drawn into a trap even if they realized it from the beginning, for they could not afford to allow this pagan multitude to rampage unchecked throughout Judea. Confronting it when they did, before they had time to assemble sufficient soldiers, was unavoidable—and fatal.
The Legacy of Judas
Maccabeus
For no small reason, Judas was called “the Hammer.” His unparalleled
battlefield adaptability, proficiency in exploiting an enemy’s mistakes,
ability to fight at night, and effective use of terrain, surprise, and
espionage made him the bane of succeeding Seleucid commanders. After Judas’s
death, his brothers Jonathan and Simon eventually achieved the Judean dream of
religious and political independence. It was the first time in recorded history
that a subject people had won a revolutionary war for religious freedom. Because
he fought in just one poorly chronicled war, Judas Maccabeus has largely been
lost among the giant shadows cast by Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar,
Genghis Khan, Napoleon Bonaparte, Shaka Zulu, and other great conquerors.
Unlike them, Judas was a man of noble motives who fought because he had no
other choice. Unfettered by outmoded convention, he taught himself and his
followers to fight via methods too subtle to be perceived by their powerful but
outmoded adversaries. Today’s high-tech military strategists would be well
served to study the humble partisan leader of long ago, who wanted nothing more
for himself and his people than to be allowed to live and worship in peace.Martyrdom[2]
If we look at the modern world, we see nothing but hostility toward the Faith. In the Middle East, Christians are being martyred in the most brutal way. Every day brings a new threat. Persecution is open and the choice is clear: Serve Christ or die. To live and embrace the Faith in such circumstances requires a great deal of holy fearlessness.
Even in the “civilized” West, persecution is no less present, albeit in a different and more subtle form. We are asked by the powers that be to acquiesce, to compromise on the most fundamental moral issues that exist
·
Things like the nature of marriage
·
The protection of innocent human life in the
womb
·
The nature and purpose of human sexuality
As the July date approached Lucia continued to be
troubled by the words of her pastor that the devil might be behind the
apparitions. Finally, she confided to Jacinta that she intended not to go. When
the day finally dawned, however, her fears and anxieties disappeared, so that
the noon hour found her in the Cova with Jacinta and Francisco, awaiting the
arrival of the beautiful Lady.
The apparition of July 13th, 1917 would prove
to be in many ways the most controversial aspect of the message of Fátima,
providing a secret in three parts which the children guarded zealously. The
first two parts, the vision of hell and the prophecy of the future role of
Russia and how to prevent it, would not be revealed until Sr. Lucia wrote them
down in her third memoir, at the request of the bishop, in 1941. The third
part, usually called the Third Secret, was only later communicated to the
bishop, who sent it unread to Pope Pius XII.
A few moments after arriving at the Cova da Iria, near
the holmoak, where a large number of people were praying the Rosary, we saw the
flash of light once more, and a moment later Our Lady appeared on the holmoak.
"Lucia," Jacinta said, "speak. Our Lady is
talking to you."
"Yes?" said Lucia. She spoke humbly, asking
pardon for her doubts with every gesture, and to the Lady: "What do you
want of me?"
I want you
to come back here on the thirteenth of next month. Continue to say the Rosary
every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, to obtain the peace of the world
and the end of the war, because only she can obtain it.
"Yes, yes."
"I would like to ask who you are, and if you will do
a miracle so that everyone will know for certain that you have appeared to
us."
You must come here every month, and in October I
will tell you who I am and what I want. I will then perform a miracle so that
all may believe.
Thus assured, Lucia began to place before the Lady the
petitions for help that so many had entrusted to her. The Lady said gently that
she would cure some, but others she would not cure.
"And the crippled son of Maria da Capelinha?"
No, neither of his infirmity nor of his poverty
would he be cured, and he must be certain to say the Rosary with his family
every day.
Another case recommended by Lucia to the Lady's
assistance was a sick woman from Atougia who asked to be taken to heaven.
Tell her not to be in a hurry. Tell her I know very
well when I shall come to fetch her.
Make sacrifices for sinners, and say often,
especially while making a sacrifice: O Jesus, this is for love of Thee, for the
conversion of sinners, and in reparation for offences committed against the
Immaculate Heart of Mary.
[First
Part of the Secret – The Vision of Hell]
As Our Lady spoke these words she opened her hands once
more, as had during the two previous months. The rays of light seemed to
penetrate the earth, and we saw as it were a sea of fire. Plunged in this fire
were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers, all
blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the conflagration, now raised
into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with
great clouds of smoke, now following back on every side like sparks in huge
fires, without weight or equilibrium, amid shrieks and groans of pain and
despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. (it must have been
this sight which caused me to cry out, as people say they heard me do). The
demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repellent likeness to
frightful and unknown animals, black and transparent like burning coals. Terrified
and as if to plead for succor, we looked up at Our Lady, who said to us, so
kindly and so sadly:
[Second
Part of the Secret]
You have seen hell, where the souls of poor sinners
go. It is to save them that God wants to establish in the world devotion to my
Immaculate Heart. If you do what I tell you, many souls will be saved, and
there will be peace.
This war will end, but if men do not refrain from
offending God, another and more terrible war will begin during the pontificate
of Pius XI. When you see a night that is lit by a strange and unknown light
[this occurred on January 28, 1938], you will know it is the sign God gives you
that He is about to punish the world with war and with hunger, and by the
persecution of the Church and the Holy Father.
To prevent this, I shall come to the world to ask
that Russia be consecrated to my Immaculate Heart, and I shall ask that on the
First Saturday of every month Communions of reparation be made in atonement for
the sins-of the world. If my wishes are fulfilled, Russia will be converted and
there will be peace; if not, then Russia will spread her errors throughout the
world, bringing new wars and persecution of the Church; the good will be
martyred and the Holy Father will have much to suffer; certain nations will be
annihilated. But in the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father
will consecrate Russia to me, and she will be converted, and the world will
enjoy a period of peace. In Portugal the faith will always be preserved...
[Third
Part of the Secret – Congregation for Doctrine of the Faith, “The Message of
Fátima”]
{After the two parts which I have already explained, at
the left of Our Lady and a little above, we saw an Angel with a flaming sword
in his left hand; flashing, it gave out flames that looked as though they would
set the world on fire; but they died out in contact with the splendor that Our
Lady radiated towards him from her right hand: pointing to the earth with his
right hand, the Angel cried out in a loud voice: ‘Penance, Penance, Penance!'.
And we saw in an immense light that is God: ‘something
similar to how people appear in a mirror when they pass in front of it' a
Bishop dressed in white; ‘we had the impression that it was the Holy Father'.
Other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious going up a steep mountain, at
the top of which there was a big Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree
with the bark; before reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city
half in ruins and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and
sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way; having
reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross, he
was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him, and in
the same way there died one after another the other Bishops, Priests, men and
women Religious, and various lay people of different ranks and positions.
Beneath the two arms of the Cross there were two Angels each with a crystal
aspersorium in his hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the Martyrs and
with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God.}
Remember, you must not tell this to anyone except
Francisco.
When you pray the Rosary, say after each mystery: O
my Jesus, forgive us, save us from the fire of hell. Lead all souls to heaven,
especially those who are most in need.
"Is there anything more that you want of me?"
No, I do not want anything more of you today.
Then as before Our Lady began to ascend towards the east,
until she finally disappeared in the immense darkness of the firmament. The
possession of the Secret proved to be very great trial for the three young
ones. Family, neighbors, followers of the apparitions, even the clergy, tried
unsuccessfully to get them to reveal it. Finally, as the day of the August
apparition approached even the civil government, which was secular and
virulently anti-clerical, alarmed by the numbers of people taking an interest
in the Fátima events, attempted to wrest it from them and in the process expose
the Church as a collaborator in a fraud.
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