33rd Week in Ord. Time, Wednesday – 22nd November 2023 – 2 Macc 7,1.20-31; Lk 19,11-28
Brave Mother
The first reading presents another famous story of fidelity under excruciating and inhuman torture, of the seven brothers in the sight of their unnamed mother, for the cause of religious freedom. The celebrated mother, who acts with a woman’s reasoning and a man’s courage, bore the deaths of her sons because of her hope in the Lord. She is the focus of the story as “especially admirable and worthy of honourable memory” (7,20). She maintained an extraordinary dignity and fidelity to God at all cost. She encouraged each of her sons to face death, who expressed the words of defiance for the king. In a vibrant declaration, the Maccabean mother linked her faith in the Creator, who “in his mercy give life and breath back to you again, since you now forget yourselves for the sake of his laws” (7,23). Creation, pregnancy and rebirth are linked together in her thought. Faith in the resurrection cancels all fears of earthly death for her seven sons. In fact, she was very proud of her sons, whom she raised up as godly and God-fearing men, for their loyalty to God and their Jewish beliefs and their readiness to sacrifice their lives.
