Welcome back to the Jesse Tree on the Catholic Sprouts podcast.

Today is Saturday of the third week of Advent.

After many years of suffering in exile, the Israelites were allowed to return to the

promised land.

Unfortunately, getting home was only half of the battle.

The holy city was in ruins, and many were tempted to return to captivity.

Determined men like Nehemiah led the return and the rebuilding of Jerusalem.

The people enjoyed peace for a time, but roughly 150 years before the birth of Jesus, Israel was threatened by another pagan army.

This time, it was the Greeks.

Listen now to the story of the Maccabian martyrs taken from the second book of Maccabees.

Second Maccabees, 7,1 through 7. 20 through 23.

It happened also that seven brothers and their mother were arrested and were being compelled

by the king under torture with whips and thongs to partake of unlawful swine's flesh.

One of them, acting as their spokesmen, said,

What do you intend to ask and learn from us? For we are ready to die rather than

transgress the laws of our ancestors. The king fell into a rage and gave orders to have

pans and cauldrons heated. These were heated immediately, and he commanded that the tongue of

their spokesmen be cut out, and that they scalp him and cut off his hands and he commanded that the tongue of their spokesman be cut out,

and that they scalp him and cut off his hands and feet, while the rest of the brothers and the

mother looked on. When he was utterly helpless, the king ordered them to take him to the fire,

still breathing, and to fry him in a pan. The smoke from the pan spread widely, but the brothers

and their mother encouraged one another

...