Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, November 6, 2022
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Freedom and responsibility
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.
If your bible doesn’t include the Apocrypha, you likely don’t know the book of 2 Maccabees.
One of the first ancient texts that relates the story of Chanukah is known as 2 Maccabees. This book survives as a condensed and reworked version of a five-volume work by Jason of Cyrene, a Hellenistic Jew who lived in the 2nd century BCE. It recalls the historical events that led to the uprising of Judah Maccabee and his brothers against the Syrian Greek king Antiochus IV Epiphanes, culminating in Judah Maccabee’s defeat of General Nicanor, and it condemns the Hellenistic cultural influences that were enticing the Judean population at this time.
Although parts of this work recall mundane historical events, 2 Maccabees also inserts miraculous details, prayers, soliloquys, and anecdotes which all underscore the author’s belief that the Hasmonean victory was entirely orchestrated by God. These details help to dramatize the story and no doubt made it memorable for the generations of Jews who read the book and kept it in circulation.
Persecution brings out the best in people, when they do not blame their persecutors. When they do, persecution sets up a rhythm of revenge. You killed my family, so when I get a chance, I’ll kill yours, and on and on. Most of history might be attributed to just that unfortunate pattern. Jesus’ teaching turned it around, but not so many followed his teaching.
Many films spotlight redemptive violence, rather than sacrifice or martyrdom. When the good guy triumphs, righteous emotion courses through almost everyone in the audience. It’s a cheap thrill, and we are mostly addicted.
Can I forgo this self-righteousness and trust God instead?
The word of the Lord will speed forward and be glorified, so that we may be delivered from perverse and wicked people. The Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one.
Viktor Frankl spent years in a Nazi concentration camp. In Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl realized that the way we think of freedom is inadequate.
Freedom is not the last word. Freedom is only part of the story and half of the truth. Freedom is but the negative aspect of the whole phenomenon, whose positive aspect is responsibleness. In fact, freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness.
In other words, I am not free in a vacuum. I am responsible within a moral culture, a culture that includes many more than just myself; only then can I act freely. When we ignore this responsibility, freedom becomes selfish and destructive.
Jesus’ culture calls me to nonviolence, sacrifice, and love … to a bias from the bottom. Give, and you shall receive. After unfair treatment, maybe more then than ever.
(2 Maccabees 7, Psalm 17, 2 Thessalonians 2, Revelation 1, Luke 20)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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