A Mother's Sons

It happened that seven brothers with their mother were arrested and tortured with whips and scourges by the king, to force them to eat pork in violation of God's law. One of the brothers, speaking for the others, said: "What do you expect to achieve by questioning us? We are ready to die rather than transgress the laws of our ancestors."

At the point of death he said: "You accursed fiend, you are depriving us of this present life, but King of the world will raise us up to live again forever. It is for his laws that we are dying."

After him the third suffered their cruel sport. He put out his tongue at once when told to do so, and bravely held out his hands, as he spoke these noble words: "It was from Heaven that I received these; for the sake of his laws I disdain them; from him I hope to receive them again." Even the king and his attendants marveled at the young man's courage, because he regarded his sufferings as nothing.

After he had died, they tortured and maltreated the fourth brother in the same way. When he was near death, he said, "It is my choice to die at the hands of men with the hope God gives of being raised up by him; but for you, there will be no resurrection to life." (2 Maccabees 7:1-2, 9-14) 

We are cheated by this reading.  It has been shortened by a large amount, and important details are omitted from 3-8 and 15-42.  They are too long to be presented here, but one glaring omission is their mother’s acceptance of their fate and her encouraging all her seven children – as well as herself – to accept martyrdom.  The entire tale is exceedingly gruesome.

There are many Christian martyrs who we admire because they give us encouragement during times of persecution.  This story of the Jewish mother and her sons is an example of steadfast refusal to compromise on issues related to “God’s law.”  Specifically, the first son said to the king: “What do you expect to achieve by questioning us? We are ready to die rather than transgress the laws of our ancestors.”  Admirable.  However, this story likely is fantasy with long speeches being placed by the author of 2 Maccabees into the mouths of these martyrs.

What is God’s law?  Don’t eat pork is one for Jews, although I assume God could care less.  But my view is not Jewish.  According to Leviticus 11:3, animals like cows, sheep, and deer that have divided hooves and chew their cud may be consumed. Pigs should not be eaten because they don't chew their cud. The ban on the consumption of pork is repeated in Deuteronomy 14:8.  

Every religion has its own “laws,” and some need to be broken when the stakes are high especially if the breaking involves preservation of life and love.  Many of God’s laws are the laws of men put into God’s “mouth.”  Strict observance to these “laws” can make us sheep to be “slaughtered.”  I prefer to be the “lost” sheep refusing to join an indoctrinated crowd thinking itself to be godly when in fact it is not.

This story of the woman and her sons likely made sense for Jews during times of extreme oppression and cruelty, such as that caused by the Greek Hellenistic king Antiochus IV Epiphanes (215 BC –164 BC). It highlights the strength of the Jewish people.  Perhaps for Christians it’s an example of redemptive suffering.  

It’s likely tied to the Christian concept of Resurrection made clear by tying this reading to today’s Gospel from Luke (20:27-38): 

Some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, came forward and put this question to Jesus, saying, "Teacher, Moses wrote for us, If someone's brother dies leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother.

Now there were seven brothers (my emphasis); the first married a woman but died childless. Then the second and the third married her, and likewise all the seven died childless. Finally, the woman also died. Now at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be? For all seven had been married to her."

Jesus said to them, "The children of this age marry and remarry; but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. They can no longer die, for they are like angels; and they are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise (my emphasis). That the dead will rise even Moses made known in the passage about the bush, when he called out 'Lord, ' the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive."

My bottom line?  If I had seven children, I'd say, "Eat the pork!"  That's easy for me to say.  I'm not Jewish, although I greatly appreciate the Jewish faith on which Christianity is based.  Jesus, Mary, Jospeh, the disciples, and all the rest were Jews.  How is it so many Catholics forget that?

Deacon David Pierce