32ND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR C

2 Maccabees 7:1-2, 9-14

Psalm 17:1, 5-6, 8, 15

2 Thessalonians 2:16–3:5

Luke 20:27-38

THE"PORK MEAT" AFFAIR

The theme that emerges from today’s readings is obviously the belief in the resurrection. The gospel focuses on the Sadducees who denied there is resurrection. In responding to their story meant to ridicule the belief in the resurrection, Jesus assures that there is life after death because our God is the God of life. Moreover, in the life after death, the children of the resurrection neither marry nor are given in marriage because they become like angels. 

For the believer, therefore, death is not an end but a transition to another form of life. The promise of an immortal life becomes a source of hope, consolation, encouragement and endurance in the face of the trials, sufferings and persecutions in the present life. This is what we see in the martyrdom of the seven brothers and their mother narrated in the first reading. The story took place during the persecution of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the impious king of Syria in the second century B.C. who was determined to impose Hellenistic culture and religion to the Jews forcing them to apostatize.

In listening to this story, one may ask: what is wrong with eating a little pork if this serves to save one’s live? In fact, there was much more at stake than “pork meat”. The choice was not between eating and not eating pork prohibited by Law (Lev. 11:7-8). It was about keeping the laws of the ancestors and remaining faithful to God or obeying the command of Antiochus. The seven brothers and their mother chose to die rather than apostatizing like many of their contemporaries. They endured torture and cruelty because they trusted in the Lord. They were sure that God would raise them to life again.

In our days, the “pork meat” has taken different names: power, popularity, sex, money, job, promotion, etc. And many are those of us who compromise our Christian identity and virtues in the face of these earthly things. Consequently, like St Paul in the second reading, let us ask God to deliver us from perverse, faithless and wicked people, and guard us from the evil one. May he give us courage like the Maccabees'  brothers and strengthen us in every good deed and word through his grace. Amen