2 Mc 7:1-2, 9-14
2 Thes 2:16-3:5
Luke 20:27-38
To the ancient Israelites any laws specified in the Torah were sacred to the Covenant and specified by the Lord. To us, men and women in government make the law; it changes frequently through a process of negotiating, deliberating, and arguing. Law-making is a human process. These brothers and their mother are killed because they refuse to transgress the covenantal law involving the eating of pork. Macabees 2 is focused on the Temple; Hellenist rituals were being practiced in the temple and thus profaned the temple.
There are many parallels between the contexts surrounding both the first reading and the gospel. The gospel passage occurs while Jesus is in the Temple and has just kicked out the money changers and Macabees is written in response to the profanity of the Temple through Hellenistic practices. When the seven brothers die, each addresses the king, and these statements build on each other. By the end, they have confessed belief in the resurrection of the body, their bodies fully restored (2). The Sadducces have asked Jesus to comment on this very same issue. The brothers are preparing to die for the sake of the Covenant and the Law. As these chapters detail the events leading up to His capture, Jesus is also preparing to be tortured and killed for a new Covenant.
To step back to the second reading for a minute, Paul writes to the Thessalonians, Father and Son have “given us everlasting encouragement and good hope.” The expression for “good hope” was used by the mystery religions, but in the new, Christian context, refocuses “good hope” on the Lord’s parousia (second coming) (2).”
“Jesus’ answer attacks the basic premise of the Sadducees: The life of the age to come is a continuation of this life and therefore needs human propagation lest it die out (2).” Jesus alludes to the resurrection of our bodies by saying, “Those who are deemed worthy to attain the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead…they can no longer die… they are God’s children because they are the ones who will rise. From a Christian perspective, we cannot talk about bodily resurrection without considering the Second Coming.
To some, even faith-filled people, contemplating “the coming age” is irrelevant to living a good life here and now. Many ask, “Must we talk about either the resurrection of the body or the Second Coming at all?” However, we can imagine that we are one of the seven brothers and we are being asked to violate our Covenantal Law and profane our Temples. How would we describe the New Covenant; the Law as given to us by Jesus? Paul says the Church is one body, and the Temple of God. What words or works of others do we consider profanity against the Lord’s Temple, the Church
Journal Questions:
- If a non-believer were to ask you, how would you explain the law of the New Covenant?
- What have you sacrificed in the past to defend this law? What do you think this day and age may ask of you in regards defending the Christian law? How do you feel about the potential sacrifice?
References:
1-The Collegeville Bible Commentary, Old Testament. The Order of St. Benedict, Inc., Collegeville, Minnesota, 1992.
2- The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1990.
© 2016 Marilyn MacArthur, all rights reserved
Writing to Pray 