Tuesday 12 November 2013

Martyrs, Eternal life, Heaven and Hell







32nd Sunday per annum C
Today’s first reading from Maccabees is harrowing yet also very moving and deeply impressive. The Jewish martyrs were willing to receive torture and even death rather than renounce their faith in the LORD. They could easily have lied, and avoided suffering and an early death. There is a certain worldly logic that suggests that lying, or pretending to renounce the LORD, is obviously a lesser evil than the suffering they endured and the death they went to. Many Jews chose to renounce their faith rather than suffer the fate of a martyr.   (continued here)



Reflections on Worship in Sacrifice