Sunday readings for November 11, 2007

Reading 1, 2 Maccabees 7:1-2,9-14  Although the Jewish feast of Hanukah resulted from the Maccabean revolution, you won’t read about it in non-Catholic Bibles. The two books of Maccabees are among the seven OT books included in the Greek Septuagint but not included in the more limited Hebrew canon. The immense territory conquered by Alexander the Great was divided among his generals, each of whom had a different manner of relating to the areas under their control. The Seleucids, whose territory included Judea, attempted to replace the culture and religion of those conquered with the Hellenistic or Greek culture. When the Jerusalem temple was converted into a pagan temple, the Maccabees family led a revolt which eventually resulted in Jewish independence. This vignette recounts the amazing conviction of a mother and her sons. Would it have been so bad for them to eat a little bit of pork and save their lives? To what extent would you be willing to compromise your faith for some worldly gains?

Reading II, 2 Thessalonians 2:16-3:5  As the woman and her sons in the first reading were a tremendous inspiration and encouragement for their fellow Jews, Paul applauds the Thessalonians for being an encouragement for himself and other Christian communities. How do you encourage your fellow Christians in the faith?

Luke 20:27-38 From the woman with seven sons to the woman with seven husbands, resurrection of the dead is the theme of these readings. While the Pharisees believed in life after death and resurrection of the dead, the Sadducees did not and tried to make it seem ludicrous with the question they posed to Jesus. Although we believe in life after death, we often hear eulogies at funerals in which people talk about the person being united with a deceased spouse or doing all the things he or she enjoyed doing in this world. Jesus might want to correct us as well. Heaven, Jesus indicates, is going to very different from what we experience here on earth. What do you imagine it will be like?