32nd Sunday in
Ordinary Time
Cycle C
2 Macc 7: 1-2, 9-14
2 Thess 2: 16-3:5
Lk 20: 27-38
There are some things worth dying for.
We hear a story today of great courage based upon strong faith and
conviction. The story of the Maccabees isn’t read very often in our liturgy,
and in fact, is not even included in Protestant bibles, so you may not be very
aware of it. Our first reading today is pretty gruesome, and we only hear the
middle of the story. There were actually seven brothers and their mother, and
the mother was forced to watch all of her sons be killed before she herself was
killed. Why were these poor people being tortured and killed, and what had led
them to make the decision to resist so stubbornly?
After the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC, there was a
struggle for control of Israel, Egypt and Syria. Eventually the Seleucids from
Syria gained control and began a program of Hellenization that sought to force
the Jews to abandon their monotheism for the Greek’s paganism. They erected a
shrine to the Greek god Zeus in the temple in Jerusalem, outlawed circumcision,
and forced the Jews to either eat pork as a sign of abandoning their law or be
tortured and killed. That is the choice that faced the seven brothers in
today’s reading.
To the Jews, this was more than just a religious struggle. This
was a struggle for their identity as a people. They saw the Law as being both a
sign of their fidelity to God and a symbol of themselves as a nation. It is
easy to see why they would resist the Greek’s effort to assimilate them. They
could not in good conscience go against the Law. They chose death over
assimiliation.
They were willing to die for their faith. They had such strong
conviction that they were able to withstand horrible pain and suffer death
rather than go against the central tenant of their being – faithfulness to God.
Do you have such a conviction about anything in your life? Is there anything
you would be willing to die for? I think most of us would give our lives for
those we love, especially for our family. At least we like to believe we would.
But most of us will never be faced with that choice. I know I haven’t and
really don’t ever want to be. I have a thing about pain. I can relate with the
quote from Flannery O’Connor, “I don’t think I can be a saint, but I think I
could be a martyr if they kill me real quick”.
Hopefully we will never face that ultimate choice. Deliver us from evil, we pray. But life is full of thousands of less dire decisions that by themselves probably won’t tip the balance but taken together over our lifetimes actually affect how we will be judged by God. And the driver of all our decisions is our conscience.
When we consider questions of faith and morals, we always refer to
the primacy of our conscience. We must follow our conscience. That is true, but
that doesn’t absolve us from responsibility, in fact, it increases it. We are
each responsible fully for our own decisions and actions. All our actions have
consequences and therefore we shouldn’t make decisions, especially important
decisions, lightly or without weighing things carefully. All the doctrines and
dogmas, rules and regulations of the Church and society are there to inform and
guide us, but we are responsible. We are the ones who will be judged by God for
what we have done in this life, and so I guess ultimately it is our conscience
that is the final arbiter of our decisions. But then our consciences are the
final determiner of the consequences, too.
So many people use this reasoning as a rationalization and excuse
to do whatever they like, because their conscience tells them it’s ok. You may
follow your conscience down the wrong path. And sincerity has little to do with
it. You might be very sincere in your beliefs, but you might be sincerely
wrong. This is especially the case in today’s society where we believe that
there are few or no immutable truths. All is relative to what I believe my
conscience is telling me. That is not what we believe as Catholics. While we do
believe in the primacy of conscience, that conscience must be formed correctly.
It isn’t up to us what is right and what is wrong.
You will form your conscience whether you do it consciously or
not. If you don’t do it yourself, it will be done for you by all the outside
opinions and pressures of the world. It
is formed by your life experiences, your moral upbringing and belief, and your
faith, or lack of faith, in God. As faithful Catholics, we are called to
constantly be forming our consciences. It is not that right and wrong are
constantly changing, it’s that our understanding of right and wrong develops
and grows as we do. As Catholics, we are required to form our consciences
within the teachings and guidance of the Church. Not because we blindly follow
the law, but because, like the Maccabees, our faith defines who we are. Our
relationship with God is central to our lives, because we are all called to
build up the kingdom. We can abide by changes in thought and practice in
society to a certain extent, but eventually we will be called upon to make a
choice. It seems that more and more society’s norms are in direct opposition to
our consciences. Some choices are easy and obvious, others are actually between
life and death.
Just as conscience is not developed in a vacuum, it does not exist
by itself. It should always be accompanied by courage and conviction.
Conscience is what we turn to to make decisions, but we are then called to act
on those decisions. Many times it is easier to make the decision than to do
something about it. Where do we get the courage to act? Remember that decisions
have consequences. Courage comes into play when we are aware of what might
happen if we act.
Some things are worth fighting for.
There are two consequences to every action. One is the immediate
consequence and the other is the eternal consequence. In today’s world, acting
morally or in accordance with your faith has a real chance of getting you
canceled, banned, ostracized, fired or even killed. There seem to be no more
private actions. Everyone seems to be in everybody’s business. Even a simple
comment to a social media post can destroy you. It takes courage to speak out
and live the calling you received at your baptism to be a prophet, to speak
truth to power and stand up for the oppressed. But that is what we are all
called to do because of our baptism.
What gives courage its power and purpose is hope. Courage lives or
dies based upon hope. We weigh the risks against the benefits and decide to
act. Just as there are eternal consequences to our immoral choices, there is
hope of eternal life in our moral choices. The thing that gave the Maccabees
the courage to resist was their hope in what was to come. They believed that
they would be raised again by their God to a glorious future. It was that hope
that drove them to resist. It was that hope that gave them their courage. It
was their courage that led to their conviction. We share that same hope in the
resurrection. But do we share their conviction? Is our hope in eternal life
with God enough to guide all our decisions, all our actions, even when faced
with hardship and suffering?
Some things are worth living for.
Keep your eye on the prize. Our goal is no less than eternal life.
All else in this life pales in comparison. Jesus said, “What does it profit a
man if he should gain the whole world but lose his soul? Or what should a man
give in exchange for his soul?”
Brothers and Sisters, may the Lord Jesus Christ
and God our Father,
Who has loved us and given us lasting
encouragement,
And good hope through his grace,
Encourage your hearts and strengthen them in
every good deed and word.
