32nd Sunday 2022
2 Macc 7:1-2, 9-14; 2 Thess 2:16-3:5; Luke 20:27-38
I know that it is good for us to be exposed to as much of the Bible as possible, but I do wonder how much inspiration we are likely to draw from today’s Gospel account of the Sadducees and their tall tale of the one bride for seven brothers. Its chief value seems to me to be a warning to us not to become involved in silly and pointless arguments with people who have no interest in serious discussion, but are simply trying to score points. Our Lord gives these people short shrift, simply pointing to the absurdity of the case they invent, and refusing to be drawn into a lengthy debate: we would be wise to do the same.
There will be people who will ask questions because they seriously want to understand the nature of, and the reasons for, our faith. In such cases we need to engage seriously with them, doing our best to answer their questions, to meet their objections, and to tease out difficulties.
This demands of us that we have a deep relationship with God, and a clear understanding of what we believe. We need to be familiar with the Bible, and with the teachings of the Church, drawn both from the Bible and from the tradition developed under the guidance of the Holy Spirit over two thousand years.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church, published in 1994, is our best guide here. If that seems a bit too heavy, then the Compendium of the Catechism, published a dozen years later by the CTS, and comprising just 174 pages, with an appendix of familiar prayers, should prove accessible to anybody. I don’t think that we can still be satisfied, as adults, with the old “Penny Catechism” on which many of us were brought up, and which doesn’t answer some of the challenges thrown up by the modern age.
Today’s First Reading, set in the context of the Jewish revolt led by the Maccabean clan against the Seleucid occupation of the second century BC, appears to be linked with the Gospel on the fairly flimsy ground that it also deals with seven brothers who die. The two Books of Maccabees belong to the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible (aka the Old Testament) and in their case, and a number of other books such as Wisdom, and Sirach, there is no Hebrew version. Hence, they tend to be given less weight than those which appear in both Hebrew and Greek.
Hence they are known as deutero-canonical—effectively, second string. In Catholic editions of the Bible, the deutero-canonical books are usually included in the main body, whereas non-Catholic versions often refer to them as the Apocrypha, and to print them together, at the end of the Old Testament. This can be slightly confusing, as the Apocryphal Gospels are something else entirely, rejected as not genuine, and not included in the Bible at all.
Today’s extract is valuable in reminding us of the threat of persecution, remote perhaps for us, but very real for our ancestors, and for huge numbers of Christians in many parts of the world today. The history of our own English, Lancashire, and indeed Lancaster martyrs is a reminder of the courage demanded of our forebears in keeping the Catholic faith, and especially the Mass, alive in this country, and a valuable ecumenical resource as an example of courage in faith to which all can relate.
Yet for many, persecution and martyrdom, far from being an historical memory, are a present reality. Not only are there active persecution of and discrimination against, Christians in many, though not all, majority Muslim countries , and attempts by Islamist groups such as Isis, al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, and al-Shabbab to destroy Christianity in the Middle East and large parts of Africa, but even in nominally Christian nations in Latin America, people of faith are being murdered for their witness against dictatorial regimes, rapacious landowners, and drug barons.
Today, as always throughout history, persecution exists, along with cultural assaults on faith. We need to be well-informed about our faith, and constant in prayer and solidarity with all who suffer, anywhere in our world.
