God promised us through Christ Jesus a resurrection to eternal life. This promise is From God who is God of the living and not the dead. Despite God’s love for us, sometimes those alive in this mortal body can sentence themselves to death.
From St. Paul’s second letter to Timothy: If we have died with him we shall also live with him; If we hold out to the end we shall also reign with him. But, if we deny him he will deny us.
The world continues to deny him.
We should not be surprised. It is a fact that has always been. If the readings today speak of anything, they speak to this world where everything challenges God.
Society is telling us if we don’t challenge what our faith tells us is God’s moral law then we are corrupt and evil.
If what we do is because of our beliefs in an all-powerful yet loving God we are labeled as haters.
We are told our choices are wrong. Our politics are wrong. Our beliefs are wrong. We are told our lives are wrong.
It happened to seven brothers who with their mother was arrested. They were tortured to force them to violate God's law.
The government tortured the brothers one by one. Each stood up for their beliefs. Each stood up for God. Each stood up for God’s promise.
"It is my choice to die at the hands of men with the hope God gives of being raised up by him; but for you, there will be no resurrection to life."
Over two thousand years ago, these brothers were tortured to get them to renounce God and God’s law. The reading today is the reading for general audiences. The entire description of their torture can be found in Maccabees.
It could and does happen today in some form or another. It is just called something different. In parts of the world, Christians are crucified for their faith. In our country, Christ is tortured. God’s laws are violated.
The abortion debate has changed from does life begin at conception to does life begin even after the actual birth.
In Texas, a jury awarded a mother the ability to force gender reassignment therapy on her son. She was a specialist in gender dysmorphia and identified her son as a girl, even though her son said he was a boy.
Soft core pornography bombards us from television, commercials, and video games. And the world struggles with pornography addiction.
All this disrespect for life, addiction to pornography, and acceptance to the depravity of modern society has blinded societies eye to what is right by God’s natural law. There is increased threats of human trafficking and a world rampant with in sexism, misogyny, and racism. A world that says these things are bad from one side of its mouth and encourages it out of the other.
Then the blame is placed on those who believe that what God created is right. God created a man to be a man and a woman to be a woman. They are not the same. God made us distinct and different for a reason.
We are to procreate. We are to respect the life of our children and our elderly. We are to take care of our widows and orphans. We are to take care of those less fortunate than us.
This is God’s plan. It is not the world’s plan.
Jesus tells us this in the gospel. Life is not about the promises we make to each other in this world. It is about eternal life, the promise God has made to us.
Most who try to tell us right in the world have no faith. They have no faith in people and no faith in God. They don’t know the word of God. They don’t know the history of sin in the world. Or in truth, they ignore it.
It is up to believers, people of faith, to bring the word of God to the world.
Brothers and sisters, pray the word of the Lord may speed forward and be glorified. Pray that we may be delivered from perverse and wicked people, for not all have faith.
As the last of the seven brothers from readings in the book of Maccabees died, he said this to his tormentors: Do not think you will go unpunished for having dared to fight against God.
It is something the world should remember - if we deny him he will deny us.
People of faith remember the Lord God is looking on and truly has compassion. The Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one.
Be good, be holy and preach the gospel everyday by the way you live your life and love one another. Amen.
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