November 21, 2025 Friday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time
Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Daily Readings: 1 Maccabees 4:36-37, 52-59; Luke 19:45-48
The Maccabees defeated the Greeks. The military victory prompted Judas Maccabeus and his brothers to make a decision to climb on Mount Zion to cleanse the sanctuary and dedicate it to the Lord. They together with all the army assembled together. They built a new altar of burnt offering and they dedicated it to God with songs, harps, lutes and cymbals. The people prostrated with devotion, blessing and worshipping God. The celebrations of dedication went on for eight days joyously. Besides burnt offerings, they also offered a sacrifice of well-being and a thanksgiving offering. As part of total restoration, they repaired the gates, chambers of the priests, and the façade with golden shields and crowns. They had also decided to institute the feast of Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights. They established that this feast should be celebrated with joy and gladness. The Jews expressed their gratitude to God by sanctifying the sanctuary and instituting the festival of lights!
At the time of Jesus, lots of business activities took place in the Court of the Gentiles which was part of the temple. That is the area set aside for the non-Jews to pray. It is here that Jesus enters and is awfully disturbed deep within. He sanctifies the temple of Jerusalem by driving away all the buyers and sellers. He too tries to sanctify the temple. He called it his house of prayer (Isaiah 56:7) and they have no right to transform it into a den of robbers. This event depicts Jesus’ moral authority to challenge the corrupt practices of the religious of his time. The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people try to find fault with him in order to find a way to kill him. The crowd that was in love with Jesus became a hindrance to them. All of us have to ensure that a place of worship should genuinely be maintained as a House of God!
Call to Action: Christian traditions celebrated the event of the Presentation of Mary to remind us Mary’s commitment to God and humanity!
Radio Veritas Asia (RVA), a media platform of the Catholic Church, aims to share Christ. RVA started in 1969 as a continental Catholic radio station to serve Asian countries in their respective local language, thus earning the tag “the Voice of Asian Christianity.” Responding to the emerging context, RVA embraced media platforms to connect with the global Asian audience via its 21 language websites and various social media platforms.
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