Wednesday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time
In the second book of the Maccabees we read about the heroic martyrs of the Jewish people. “Most admirable and worthy of everlasting remembrance was the mother who saw her seven sons perish in a single day, yet bore it courageously because of her hope in the Lord” (2 Macc 7:20). Rather than eat pork, in violation of Jewish kosher laws, her seven sons accepted, and she, afterward, accepted, torture and death. She constantly encouraged her sons to obey God’s laws rather than the laws of human beings. It was her hope and her courage that made her eloquent. It was also her wisdom, for she was choosing the best gifts for her sons: knowledge of God, hope in God’s promises, and courage before God’s enemies. She was a heroic woman, committed, zealous, and without compromise.
Many of us today need to be reminded that, yes, there is a time for compromising, but there is also a time to be far from compromises. Zeal, when rational, is a good thing. Abraham Lincoln promoted such zeal in his Gettysburg Address on November 19th, 1863. “It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion…”
We are not pre-Christian Jews, nor are we Civil War soldiers, but we can learn from them and take from them increased devotion. Let us adhere, zealously and without compromise, to Jesus Christ and his teachings.