Fr. Andrew Apostoli spoke about this passage in 2 Maccabees, on Oct 29, on the Sunday Night Live program on EWTN. Let me see if I can get it from my electronic NAB. Here it is (searched on the word “dead” to get)
New American Bible 2 Maccabees
Expiation for the Dead.
12:38 Judas rallied his army and went to the city of Adullam. As the week was ending, they purified themselves according to custom and kept the sabbath there.
12:39 On the following day, since the task had now become urgent, Judas and his men went to gather up the bodies of the slain and bury them with their kinsmen in their ancestral tombs.
12:40 But under the tunic of each of the dead they found amulets sacred to the idols of Jamnia, which the law forbids the Jews to wear. So it was clear to all that this was why these men had been slain.
12:41 They all therefore praised the ways of the Lord, the just judge who brings to light the things that are hidden.
12:42 * Turning to supplication, they prayed that the sinful deed might be fully blotted out. The noble Judas warned the soldiers to keep themselves free from sin, for they had seen with their own eyes what had happened because of the sin of those who had fallen.
12:43 He then took up a collection among all his soldiers, amounting to two thousand silver drachmas, which he sent to Jerusalem to provide for an expiatory sacrifice. In doing this he acted in a very excellent and noble way, inasmuch as he had the resurrection of the dead in view;
12:44 for if he were not expecting the fallen to rise again, it would have been useless and foolish to pray for them in death.
12:45 But if he did this with a view to the splendid reward that awaits those who had gone to rest in godliness,** it was a holy and pious thought.**12:46 Thus he made atonement for the dead that they might be freed from this sin.
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