32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time (This Life or The Next)

As I read and prayed over this rather severe account described in our first reading, I found myself asking: To what length will we go—what are we willing to sacrifice—for the things we hold sacred? And that begs a follow-up question: What are the things we hold sacred? What is it that we hold so dear that we would sacrifice for it? I suspect many of us would say family is at the top of that list, and rightly so. Some might say it’s their home, their property. And as Veteran’s Day approaches, I believe some would say it’s their nation. In the case of the Maccabees, and specifically in the case of the family in today’s first reading, they held their religious principles—even dietary restrictions—so dear, that they were willing to suffer and die. It makes me wonder: How dear do we hold to the things we believe God has revealed to us through the teachings of our faith?

I ask this in consideration of the tension between our faith and the culture in which we live. Our situation is different than the Maccabees, but then, not so different. The Jewish people had different values and customs than their Greek oppressors. While some Jews adopted what the Greeks imposed, others, like the Maccabees, refused. For us, in some ways, as we hold on to what our Christian faith has always taught, the culture around us has become a sort of tyranny, telling us what we must believe, if we are not to be radicalized and pushed to the side.

The customs of our culture may not even be something we agree with, yet because it’s so easy to be carried away by our feelings and emotional responses, but also, because we just want to not be at odds with the moral majority—we surrender the principles we once held.

These are good questions for us to consider, but there’s another important detail to the story of the seven brothers and their mother. It’s their willingness to suffer and die, trusting in their belief in the Resurrection. Dumfounding to us—and disturbing to our sensibilities—is the mother’s willingness to allow her sons’ torture. But again, it raises a good question regarding ourselves and those entrusted to us: What is the good that we ultimately want for ourselves and our loved ones? Is it to be successful in this life? Is it to experience the maximum pleasure and comfort in this life? Is it to preserve this life at any and all costs?

          Last month we celebrated the Feast of the Guardian Angels. It always reminds me that the primary task of our Guardian Angel is not principally to protect us from harm in this life, or to ensure that we never die. Their job is to escort us to heaven and to protect our souls for heaven. Likewise, God doesn’t promise us that no suffering will ever come our way, but He promises us eternal life, if only we too desire it, we prepare our lives for it, and see it ultimately as true home for ourselves and those entrusted to us.

          It was at our baptism that we became heirs of what Jesus won for us by being raised from the dead. We became children of the Resurrection: a beautiful gift that perhaps too many of us would perhaps surrender for what this culture demands of us. So, What do you hold as sacred? For what would you sacrifice? Is it primarily to thrive according to this world or is it to receive what God holds in store for us? Are we foremost people of this life or of the next?