2 Maccabees 7:24-29: a reflection

24But Antiochus, thinking himself to be despised, and suspecting the reproachful voice, while the youngest was yet alive didn’t only make his appeal to him by words, but also at the same time promised with oaths that he would enrich him and raise him to high honor if he would turn from the ways of his ancestors, and that he would take him for his friend and entrust him with public affairs. 25But when the young man would in no way listen, the king called to him his mother, and urged her to advise the youth to save himself. 26When he had urged her with many words, she undertook to persuade her son. 27But bending toward him, laughing the cruel tyrant to scorn, she spoke this in the language of her fathers: “My son, have pity upon me who carried you nine months in my womb, and nursed you three years, and nourished and brought you up to this age, and sustained you. 28I beg you, my child, to lift your eyes to the sky and the earth, and to see all things that are in it, and thus to recognize that God made them not of things that were, and that the race of men in this way comes into being. 29Don’t be afraid of this butcher, but, proving yourself worthy of your brothers, accept your death, that in God’s mercy I may receive you again with your brothers.”

In this account of terrible suffering for the faith, a mother watches her sons put to death rather than deny God; and when the last, youngest son is threatened, she does something astonishing. Rather than urging him to save himself, she encourages him to remain faithful even to death. She points him to the God who made all things out of nothing, and to the hope of resurrection: Do not be afraid, she says; accept your death, that in God's mercy I may receive you again with your brothers. Her faith, grounded in God the Creator and the hope of resurrection, was stronger than death.

Notice the ground of the mother's astonishing courage: faith in God the Creator, and hope in the resurrection. She points her son to the God who made all things out of nothing, the Creator whose power is not limited by death; and to the hope that God, in his mercy, would raise the faithful and reunite them. Grounded in these, her faith could face even the death of her children, and encourage them to remain faithful; for she believed that death was not the end, and that the God who made all things could raise them again.

That faith, stronger than death, grounded in God the Creator and the hope of resurrection, is a faith to aspire to. We may not face such extremity; but we all face death, our own and that of those we love, and the fears and losses that come with it. And the same faith that sustained this mother can sustain us: faith in the God who made all things, whose power is not limited by death, and hope in the resurrection, that death is not the end for those who are his. When you face death, your own or that of those you love, ground your faith where this mother grounded hers: in God the Creator, and the hope of resurrection. Death is not the end; the God who made all things out of nothing is able to raise the faithful, and to reunite those separated by death. Let your faith, grounded in the Creator and the hope of resurrection, be stronger than death, as this mother's faith was stronger than death, sustaining her even as she faced the loss of her children in hope of God's mercy to raise them.

Lord, in this account of terrible suffering for the faith, a mother watched her sons put to death rather than deny you; and when the youngest was threatened, she encouraged him to remain faithful even to death, pointing him to you, the God who made all things out of nothing, and to the hope of resurrection: do not be afraid; accept your death, that in God's mercy I may receive you again with your brothers. Show me the ground of her astonishing courage: faith in you the Creator, and hope in the resurrection. She pointed her son to you, who made all things, whose power is not limited by death; and to the hope that you would raise the faithful and reunite them. Grounded in these, her faith could face even the death of her children. That faith, stronger than death, is a faith to aspire to. I may not face such extremity; but I face death, my own and that of those I love, and the fears and losses that come with it. And the same faith can sustain me: faith in you, who made all things, and hope in the resurrection, that death is not the end for those who are yours. When I face death, my own or that of those I love, help me ground my faith where this mother grounded hers: in you the Creator, and the hope of resurrection. Death is not the end; you, who made all things out of nothing, are able to raise the faithful and reunite those separated by death. Let my faith, grounded in you and the hope of resurrection, be stronger than death, Lord.