There are two sets of seven brothers in the readings for this coming Sunday. Both deal with the resurrection. The gospel (LK 20: 27-38) is about the hypothetical brothers who serially married the same woman and then died. The question was meant to test Christ. I want to write about the other seven brothers from Maccabees (2 Ma 7:1-2, 9-14).
You have to understand what was going on during the time of Maccabees. The Jewish faith was under direct attack from without AND within. The faith had been outlawed, and not all the Jews themselves were against it. The Syrian king wanted all his subjects to share the same religion (worshiping the Greek god). It got so bad that a statue of Zeus was erected in the temple at Jerusalem. And the penalty for practicing Judaism was death. Many of the more cosmopolitan Jews not only complied, but joined in the persecution of their own people. The seven brothers in the reading had been arrested with their mother for practicing their faith. Their captors and are torturing them in trying to get them to eat pork, and killing all of them when they refuse.
It is this sacrifice that struck me with some of the news this week. In New Jersey, a law was enacted that all pharmacists must fill abortifacient prescriptions regardless of their personal beliefs. We also saw the US Congress pass a law that would make it illegal for a business to not hire someone who was openly gay - regardless of their personal beliefs (thankfully, the President will veto it). Laws in Massachusetts and elsewhere are being created to stifle free speech if it concerns abortion. And this is not just about laws, it includes a larger culture where one’s beliefs are expected to be held privately (if at all), but to act in an agnostic or athiestic manner in public.
The time is approaching, and for some it is already here when we will be asked to face severe consequences for acting as we believe. We are being asked little by little to violate that which we hold dear or to lose some of our rights. When they come to us and ask us to abandon our faith or face their consequences, what will we do? Where will we stand? Will we stand firm in hope of the resurrection or be swayed by the pressure of this world?
