Day 304: Life Beyond Death

2 Maccabees 7:1-42 One of the best-known passages from the Books of Maccabees is this account of the martyrdom of a mother and her seven sons. The willingness to sacrifice one’s life rather than transgress the Law and Commandments is a frequent theme in Maccabees. Despite torture, the entire family remained faithful and offered the supreme sacrifice of their love and fidelity.


Ch 7:9-29 We have died for his laws: Abiding in the truth as expressed by obedience to God’s Law often requires considerable sacrifice of comfort, popularity, and even life itself. The ultimate witness to the truth is martyrdom, which is the most convincing argument that God is the absolute good. (CCC 992, 1680)


Ch 7:22-29 The mother’s encouragement of her sons in the face of death provides a powerful witness to faith in God the Creator and hints at a perfect happiness in the afterlife. God alone creates out of nothing and keeps everything in existence. The mother trusted and marveled at the life-giving power of God, leading her to place great hope in his mercy in rewarding her sons for their fidelity to the Commandments. (CCC 296-297)


Ch 7:28 The mother’s private encouragement to her youngest son was even more explicit in revealing her future hope. This belief in the resurrection stirred up the hope that God might reunite her family in a new life after death. God who created us out of love could certainly reward us with the fullness of life. (CCC 297, 992)


Wisdom 3:1-19 In one of the first instances in the Old Testament, the author elaborates on the nature of the afterlife both for the righteous and for the sinful. The righteous can look forward with hope to a bountiful reward in the Kingdom of God for their virtuous life and patience in suffering, while the evil, who despise wisdom, will know no happiness in this life and will receive punishment in the next according to their evil deeds. (CCC 1878, 2007)


Ch 3:5-6 Disciplined them: God disciplines his people as a father lovingly disciplines his children with the purpose of freeing them from vice and forming them in virtue. We are tested and purified through trials and tribulations just as metal is refined in a furnace. (CCC 696, 2223)


Ch 3:9 It is most reasonable to give full assent to God’s infinite wisdom and love as expressed in his Divine Revelation, which is contained in Scripture together with Tradition. The authority of God is the inspiration for a life of faith, expressed in thoughts and actions that are in accordance with his commands. (CCC 154, 176-177)


Ch 4:1-16 The spiritual life is meant to start from a person’s earliest years and grow with him or her through adulthood and into old age. Wisdom, however, does not depend on age as much as the sincere and ongoing quest to grow in holiness. Confirmation is a Sacrament that congers special graces so an individual can grow in spiritual maturity and fortitude. (CCC 1308, 1833-1834)


Ch 4:7-16 In the face of heavenly reward, an early death is a blessing. This book suggests that God, in his infinite wisdom, may call a righteous person out of this world to spare that person from temptation to sin that might imperil salvation. The richness and value of a life is not determined by age but by holiness expressed in charity. Many saints of the Church, including Paul, expressed a desire for death since they yearned to be with Christ and were eager to contemplate God face to face. (CCC 1011)


Ch 4:17-20 The wicked will be judged on account of their sins and, thereby, deprived of a glorious new life in Heaven. (CCC 1035)

(*The Didache Bible RSV-CE Ignatius Edition, 2006)


  • The second story concerns a mother and her seven sons, who were subjected to torture and killed cruelly for refusing to break the Torah by eating swine’s flesh.

  • The sons repeatedly proclaim that they are willing to die for faithfulness to God’s law: “we are ready to die rather than transgress the laws of our fathers” (2 Mc 7:2), “we have died for his laws” (2 Mc 7:9), “because of his laws” (2 Mc 7:11), and “I obey the command of the law that was given to our fathers through Moses” (2 Mc 7:30).

  • Before his death, the sixth son proclaims: For we are suffering these things on our own account, because of our sins against our own God. Therefore astounding things have happened. (2 Mc 7:18).

  • The martyrs did not see their subjugation to Antiochus IV as a consequence of their political weakness per se, but rather as a result of their unfaithfulness to the covenant.

  • Despite the attempts of the pagan rulers to undermine the Jews’ fidelity to the Torah that Ezra had worked so tirelessly to reestablish, many Jews chose to submit to torture and death rather than to commit apostasy.

  • These martyrs lived a life of fidelity to the covenant and its laws, and like Daniel and countless others before them, they confessed their sins and the sins of their fathers, begging God’s mercy.


Drawing Down God’s Mercy

  • One of the most striking features in the account of the martyrdom of the mother and her seven sons in 2 Maccabees 7 is that these martyrs believed that their suffering, which was brought upon them because of their fidelity to God’s law, would bring about the redemption of the nation.

  • In the words of the youngest and last of the sons to be killed: “I, like my brothers, give up body and life for the laws of our fathers, appealing to God to show mercy soon to our nation and by afflictions and plagues to make you confess that he alone is God, and through me and my brothers to bring to an end the wrath of the Almighty which has justly fallen on our whole nation.” (2 Mc 7:37-38, emphasis added).

  • It is of paramount importance to note that the mother and her sons thought of their suffering as redemptive acts that would bring down the mercy of God upon Israel and end the chastisement that had come upon their people because of their national infidelity.

  • This conviction is emphasized by the literary strategy of 2 Maccabees.

  • The accounts of martyrdom are inserted into the story of Judas Maccabeus so as to “interrupt” its progression, as the following summary illustrates: – Judas and his followers withdraw to the wilderness. (2 Mc 5:27) – The martyrdom of Eleazar and the mother and her sons. (2 Mc 6-7) – Judas and his followers launch the revolt. (2 Mc 8:1ff.)

(*Walking With God: A Journey Through The Bible by Tim Gray and Jeff Cavins)


  • So yesterday we had the story of Eleazar, who was willing to be a martyr rather than abandon the Law of his fathers

  • Today we have the story of her seven sons who are seven brothers

  • The story is a bit graphic when it comes to their martyrdom

  • So for those of you who need a heads-up before PG-13 scenes....there you go

  • IT IS AN INCREDIBLE STORY OF FAITHFULNESS!!

  • You know your kids if you are listening with your kids

  • So today was kind of a PG-13 Day when it comes to 2 Maccabees Ch 7

  • It is one of Fr. Mike’s favorite chapters in Maccabees

  • Not because of the torture and violence

  • But because of the FAITHFULNESS

  • IT IS JUST REMARKABLE!!

  • We’ve talked about this before, but in 1 Maccabees there is FIGHTING

  • In 2 Maccabees, there is WITNESSING

  • If 1 Maccabees is all about WARRIORS then 2 Maccabees is all about WITNESSES

  • We will get to warriors in 2 Maccabees too, don’t worry

  • BUT…

  • This is ABSOLUTELY KEY and ABSOLUTELY CLEAR

  • GOSH!!

  • It’s so hard to begin to even talk about the WITNESS of these seven brothers and their mom

  • BUT…

  • The WITNESS is not simply to the faithfulness they are called to

  • Fr. Mike talked about this in a homily not too long ago

  • THEY WERE SO BOLD AND UNWILLING TO COMPROMISE

  • Think about this…

  • With Eleazar yesterday and the mother and her seven sons

  • It was all over a piece of pork

  • “If you eat a piece of bacon, you get to go home. That’s it. That is all you have to do.”

  • Just make ONE VIOLATION of the Law

  • THAT IS IT

  • Just COMPROMISE ONE TIME and you have the REST OF YOUR LIFE to spend being faithful to the Lord

  • BUT…

  • That invitation, that temptation to compromise was absolutely and irrefutably REJECTED by these men and their mom

  • When I think the second brother comes forward and...

  • 2 Maccabees 7:7-8, “‘Will you eat rather than have your body punished limb by limb?’ He replied in the language of his fathers, and said to them, ‘No.’”

  • JUST FLAT OUT NO

  • IN FACT…

  • In the New American Bible translation it says, “NEVER!” (Just like Luke said when Darth Vader threatened to turn Princess Leia to the Dark Side 🤓)

  • SO GOOD!!

  • SO POWERFUL!!

  • BUT…

  • It’s not JUST about their faithfulness

  • IN FACT…

  • We need to PAY ATTENTION to this

  • These Deuterocanonical Books give us so much Christian theology

  • What Fr. Mike means by that, you might have noticed that over the last 300+ DAYS there is not a lot of talk of the AFTERLIFE

  • In Judaism there wasn’t a lot of emphasis on life after death when the Old Testament was being written

  • You go down to SHEOL

  • You go down to the ABODE OF THE DEAD

  • BUT…

  • In these Deuterocanonical Books, GOD GIVES A REVELATION

  • The revelation is the RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD

  • Remember the Pharisees and the Sadducees had a couple of differences

  • One of those differences was that the Pharisees believed in the Resurrection of the Dead

  • The Sadducees did not

  • That’s why they were SAD U C? (Golfclap, Fr. Mike, well done 🤪)

  • Here in Maccabees and in Wisdom we see this proclamation of the fact that we believe in the RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD

  • WE BELIEVE IN LIFE AFTER DEATH

  • Which is NOT EMPHASISED in much of the other scriptures in the Old Testament

  • So there is this REVELATION HERE

  • Every one of these men and their mom can come forward with confidence and faith

  • KNOWING THAT THIS IS NOT THE END!!

  • THIS IS SO IMPORTANT FOR US!!

  • In our day and age, we are surrounded by people and sometimes it affects our hearts because we see THIS world THIS life as the ONLY world and the ONLY life

  • AS OPPOSED TO REALIZING…

  • No, this is a REAL LIFE

  • This is a REAL WORLD

  • It is good

  • God made it

  • It is a gift to us

  • BUT…

  • THIS IS NOT THE ONLY WORLD

  • THIS IS NOT THE ONLY LIFE

  • IN FACT…

  • This is almost, you could say, this is PRE-LIFE

  • Yes it’s real life obviously

  • BUT…

  • IT IS PRE-LIFE

  • We are made for this world, but we are not made for this world

  • We are made for this world in the same way that a car is made for the road

  • The road gets you to the destination

  • Here is this world that has been given to us

  • It’s good

  • It’s broken

  • BUT…

  • IT IS NOT OUR ULTIMATE HOME!!

  • In 2 Maccabees and Wisdom this is reiterated again and again

  • Two quick notes, the first about 2 Maccabees

  • At the end of 2 Maccabees Ch 7 there is something SO POWERFUL

  • So after these seven men die and their mom die

  • 2 Maccabees 7:42, “Let this be enough, then, about the eating of sacrifices and the extreme tortures.”

  • Here’s another translation that basically says, “Ok, that’s enough.”

  • That’s what they’re saying here

  • We’re not talking about these tortures to excite anybody

  • We are talking about them because of the WITNESS that was given

  • There’s something about that that is just SO POWERFUL

  • Because we realize here that the AUTHOR HIMSELF was moved

  • It is also hopefully US AS THE LISTENERS, AS READERS, AS STUDENTS OF GOD’S WORD, are also moved

  • ENOUGH

  • Enough then about this violence, about this death and destruction

  • But in the Wisdom of Solomon…

  • YOU GUYS OH MY GOSH!!

  • Wisdom 3:1-8, “But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torment will ever touch them. In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died, and their departure was thought to be an affliction, and their going from us to be their destruction, but they are at peace. For though in the sight of men they were punished, their hope is full of immortality. Having been disciplined a little, they will receive great good, because God tested them and found them worthy of himself;” like gold in the furnace he tried them, and like a sacrificial burnt offering he accepted them. In the time of the visitation they will shine forth, and will run like sparks through the stubble. They will govern nations and rule over peoples, and the Lord will reign over them forever.”

  • THIS IS SO KEY

  • This is one of Fr. Mike’s favorite reading for a funeral

  • Wisdom Ch 3

  • Listen to Fr. Mike read it again

  • IT IS WORTH US TO MEDIATE ON THIS

  • It is such a powerful WORD on not just how we view death as Christians

  • BUT…

  • How we also view what God’s involvement is in this

  • OH GOSH YOU GUYS!!

  • THIS IS SO SO IMPORTANT!!

  • It talks about OUR HOPE

  • OUR HOPE AS CHRISTIANS

  • OUR HOPE FOR ETERNAL LIFE

  • AND…

  • It also talks about a PURIFICATION PROCESS 🤔😉

  • We will get that even more in 2 Maccabees Ch 12 when there is a PURIFICATION PROCESS after death that as Catholics and Orthodox, we call it PURGATORY

  • A PLACE OF PURIFICATION

  • There are things that our heart are attached to IN THIS LIFE that they CANNOT BE ATTACHED TO in ETERNAL LIFE

  • So there is this process, a PURIFICATION, where God ALLOWS us to be made READY FOR HEAVEN

  • So here’s this piece here...2 Maccabees 3:6-7, “...like gold in the furnace he tried them, and like a sacrificial burnt offering he accepted them. In the time of their visitation they will shine forth, and will run like sparks through the stubble.”

  • That sense of being PURIFIED is SO POWERFUL

  • The reality of death and how we as Christians must see death is talked about later on

  • If you were in the Old Testament, for the most part if you wanted to be blessed...some signs of blessing are old age or a lot of kids

  • Now, those are real blessings

  • In our culture we may not see children as blessings as much as liabilities

  • Ok they are liabilities in some ways

  • BUT…

  • At the same time, even more so are they BLESSINGS

  • Even more so is a long life a BLESSING

  • AND YET…

  • IN LIGHT OF ETERNITY

  • IN LIGHT OF IMMORTALITY

  • IN LIGHT OF THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD…

  • Wisdom 3:13, “...For blessed is the barren woman who is undefiled, who has not entered into a sinful union; she will have fruit when God examines souls.”

  • Here is a woman who doesn’t have any children

  • BUT...

  • She is BLESSED if she is RIGHTEOUS or VIRTUOUS

  • Wisdom 3:14, “Blessed also is the eunuch whose hands have done no lawless deed.”

  • GOSH!!

  • Imagine in that Old Testament, Jewish culture, a eunuch was made incapable of having children and they would be seen as second class citizens

  • Fr. Mike believes it is the case that a eunuch could not participate fully in the worship in the Temple

  • AND YET…

  • Here is GOD’S WORD

  • Wisdom 3:14, “Blessed also is the eunuch whose hands have done no lawless deed, and who has not devised wicked things against the Lord; for special favor will be shown him for his faithfulness, and a place of great delight in the temple of the Lord.”

  • This is the part of the Wisdom

  • When we don’t have The Book of Wisdom in our CANON, we lose so much of the WISDOM OF GOD, the INSPIRED WORD OF GOD

  • OH GOSH!!

  • Sorry, Fr. Mike is exasperated

  • But at the same time, it is SUCH A GIFT TO US

  • Wisdom 3:17-18, “Even if they live long [those who are evil] they will be held of no account, and finally their old age will be without honor....”

  • It goes on to say, “Better to die young as a righteous person than to live a long life as an unrighteous person.”

  • Why?

  • BECAUSE OF ETERNITY!!

  • BECAUSE THERE IS MORE TO THIS LIFE THAN JUST THIS LIFE

  • THERE IS MORE TO LIFE THAN JUST THIS LIFE

  • Does that make sense?

  • It is SO IMPORTANT to realize here we are in 2 Maccabees and Wisdom that gives us, as Christians, SUCH A LENS for looking at this life

  • One of the key things to take away is this…

  • THERE IS MORE TO LIFE THAN JUST THIS LIFE, BUT GOD HAS US IN THE PALM OF HIS HANDS!!

  • So that means that even if we have a short life, better a short life lived RIGHTEOUSLY and VIRTUOUSLY than a long life SQUANDERED

  • Better to be childless than it is to be unrighteous or vicious

  • At the same time, CHILDREN ARE A BLESSING

  • LONG LIFE IS A BLESSING

  • So we pray for all those things

  • We pray for children for those couples that long for children

  • We pray for long life for all of us and for those who long for a long life

  • BUT…

  • Above everything else, the HIGHEST PRIORITY, the HIGHEST VALUE…

  • IS GOD HIMSELF!!

  • Better a short life where we CHOOSE GOD than a long life where we DON’T CHOOSE GOD

  • Does that make sense?

  • I hope that makes sense

  • GOSH!!

  • What a day!!

  • What an incredible gift we have been given today with our readings

  • FR. MIKE IS PRAYING FOR YOU!!

  • PRAY FOR FR. MIKE

  • PRAY FOR EACH OTHER


Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven we give you praise. Thank you so much. Gosh, Lord God, thank you for faithfulness. Thank you for your faithfulness. Help us. Help us to know how to be faithful to you. Help us to know when it is time to give witness to you. Help us to know when it is time to stand strong. Heop us to know when it is time to declare your goodness and your Mighty Works in our lives every day. Lord God, sometimes it is difficult to know how to speak about you. Difficult to know when to stand strong. Difficult to know when it’s time to be quiet. But help us to walk in wisdom. Help us to live in your will. Help us to always do everything we can to accomplish your will in our lives. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.”