Sunday’s first reading comes from 2 Maccabees, one of a collection of sacred texts called the second or deutero canon. A canon is the list of books a religious group considers as its holy scriptures.
The Roman Catholic canon includes the deutero-canonical books, including Maccabees, Sirach, Wisdom, Tobit, Judith; the Protestant canon terms these books apocryphal, outside the canon. The Pharisees and Sadducees had the same kind of difference over whether the later writings were as important and normative for the community as the earlier writings.
The setting for 2 Maccabees 7 is the Greek persecution of the Jews about 170 B.C. The Greek ruler in Palestine, Antiochus IV, instituted a series of loyalty tests that demanded Jews forsake the law of Moses and reject the God of their ancestors. Seven brothers and their mother died rather than forsake the law. They trusted that God who gave them life by creating them could restore them to life.
The martyrdom of innocent people led many Jews to believe in resurrection of the faithful dead, a time when God would restore them and vindicate their faith and sacrifice. Some faithful Jews believed in resurrection nearly two centuries before Jesus appeared on earth. Sunday’s first reading contains speeches from four of the seven brothers as they die.
A family keeps the law.
It happened that seven brothers with their mother were arrested and tortured with whips and scourges by the king to force them to eat pork in violation of God’s law. One of the brothers, speaking for the others, said, “What do you expect to achieve by questioning us? We are ready to die rather than transgress the laws of our ancestors.”
At the point of death the second brother said, “You accursed fiend, you are depriving us of this present life, but the ruler of the world will raise us up to live again forever. It is for God’s laws that we are dying.”
After him the third suffered their cruel sport. He put out his tongue at once when told to do so, and bravely held out his hands, as he spoke these noble words, “It was from Heaven that I received these; for the sake of God’s laws I disdain them; from God I hope to receive them again.” Even the king and his attendant marveled at the young man’s courage, because he regarded his suffering as nothing.
After he had died, they tortured and maltreated the fourth brother in the same way. When he was near death, he said, “It is my choice to die at human hands with the hope of being restored to life by God; but for you, there will be no resurrection to life.”
2 Maccabees 7.1-2, 9-14
- What continuity do you see between God, the creator of all life, and God, who can raise the dead to eternal life?
- What would you put your life on the line to defend?
- What tests your loyalty to Christian values and practice in your interactions with others in our society?
- What comfort does belief in Jesus’ resurrection give you in times of sorrow?