1 Maccabees 13:1-11. Simon Maccabee exhorts the people of Judah when there is a large army threatening to destroy it after the death of his brother Jonathan. Simon reminds them of the great things that his brothers Judas and Jonathan have done for Israel, even giving their lives to protect it, the sanctuary, and Jewish law. He says he's not better than his brothers, but he will now take up their fight. He will avenge his nation and the sanctuary "for all the nations have gathered together out of hatred to destroy us." The people are revived by Simon's speech, and they appoint him their leader to fight their battles. So Simon assembles an army, completes Jerusalem's walls, fortifies the city, and sends an army to Joppa to be ready for war.

Judah's enemies mistakenly think that she is weak after Jonathan dies. They don't consider Simon and the zeal with which the Maccabee family will fight for their nation and their faith. More than that, though, the enemies of Israel "have gathered together out of hatred." Hatred is a tool of the devil. It causes people to lose focus, lose compassion, lose piety, and simply lash out however they can to harm the person(s) they hate.

We are being taught to hate, and we can see the evidence of it everywhere we look: the violence in our cities, the tearing apart of families, the hair trigger arguments over the pettiest of things. It is so obvious to me that this is the devil at work. The hatred is being stoked and promoted from every TV set and computer. I see more people falling into its trap every day. We have to fight back, but with the right weapon and the right goal - our weapon is love, our goal is unity in Christ.

I worry that the United States as a nation may be too far gone - that all of our sins, abortion especially, have too thoroughly weakened our moral foundations and we are due for a fall. Our foundations have been rusted away by the blood we have spilled. Our hateful, divisive, and weak leaders are, honestly, just what we deserve, and they cannot protect us (I'm not even really sure they want to!).

However, our hope is in the Church. The Church is the one institution that Jesus promised us would survive until the end of time. It is the ship seeing humanity through the storms of history. So the Church will see us through this time of hatred and evil. That is why I feel so strongly that God is calling us all back to him, I think he is preparing us for the struggles that are coming.

Like Simon and the Maccabees, we have to be willing to fight to avenge our sanctuary and all people of good will, no matter their religion or lack thereof. The threat we are fighting is a spiritual one, we are battling Satan and his demons (you can tell by the hate). The Church is the haven for all, even those most under hatred's sway. If we battle the demons, and not the people who have fallen victim to them, we cannot lose. God is on our side always!