November 20, 2003, Monday of the 33rd week in ordinary time.

A reading from the first book of Maccabees.

From the descendants of Alexander's officers, there sprang a sinful offshoot, Antiochus Epiphanes,

son of King Antiochus, once a hostage at Rome. He became king in the year 137 of the

Kingdom of the Greeks. In those days, there appeared in Israel men who were breakers of the law,

and they seduced many people, saying,

Let us go and make an alliance with the Gentiles all around us.

Since we separated from them, many evils have come upon us.

The proposal was agreeable.

Some from among the people promptly went to the king, and he authorized them

to introduce the way of living of the Gentiles. Thereupon, they built a gymnasium in Jerusalem,

according to the Gentile custom. They covered over the mark of their circumcision and abandoned the Holy Covenant.

They allied themselves with the Gentiles and sold themselves to wrongdoing.

Then the king wrote to his whole kingdom that all should be one people, each abandoning his

particular customs.

All the Gentiles conformed to the command of the king,

and many children of Israel were in favor of his religion.

They sacrificed to idols and profaned the Sabbath.

On the 15th day of the month Kislev, in the year 145, the king erected the horrible

abomination upon the altar of burnt offerings, and in the surrounding cities of Judah,

they built pagan altars. They also burned incense at the doors of the houses and in the

streets. Any scrolls of the law which they found, they tore up and burnt. Whoever was found with a

...