Firmness in Faith Before Our ONLY King

           Yesterday’s First Reading focused on Eleazar, an elderly Jew who stood up to the forced paganization of Israel under Antiochus IV Epiphanes (ca 180 BC) by suffering a torturous death rather than break the kosher laws.  Today’s First Reading [https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/111925.cfm ] shows us that firmness in faith is not a question of age.

          Seven brothers and their mother are being whipped to death for not abandoning their religious convictions and consuming pork.  The Reading focuses on the mother’s encouragement of the youngest boy to stand fast in his faith. The boy’s answer is categorical: “I will not obey the king's command.  I obey the command of the law given to our fathers through Moses.  But you, who have contrived every kind of affliction for the Hebrews, will not escape the hands of God."

          Two important lessons here:

          → Fidelity to God is not a matter of age.  The Church has plenty of young saints.  Stanislaus Kostka.  Maria Goretti.  Dominic Savio.  Therese of Lisieux.  Carlo Acutis.  Pier Giorgio Frassati.  Young people are naturally idealistic, something sometimes lost with age.  That paradox is well-captured in the dialogue in Dr. Zhivago  between Komorovsky and Antipov about the latter marrying Lara: “My chief impression, and I mean no offense, is that you are very young.”  “I hope I don’t offend you: do people improve with age?”  They should.  They don’t necessarily.

          → The young man reminds Antiochus that “you will not escape the hands of God.”  When we think of the things of God and Caesar, the idea of “separation of church and state” sometimes blinds us to a basic truth: every ruler is subject to God and His law.  There is nothing that is a thing of Caesar’s that was not first and remains a thing of God’s.  Good to remember that ahead of this Sunday's Solemnity of Christ the King.