Persevering through challenges,

and letting this reverent fear guide decisions and actions to live a life that honors God. 

 

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊     

2 Maccabees 7:1, 20-31*

It happened also

That seven brothers were arrested with their mother.

The king had them scourged and flogged to force them to eat the flesh of a pig which was prohibited by the law.

More than all of them, their mother ought to be admired and remembered. She saw her seven sons die in a single day.

But she endured it even with joy for she had put her hope in the Lord. Full of a noble sense of honor,

she encouraged each one of them in the language of their ancestors.

 

Her woman's heart was moved by manly courage, so she told them: "I wonder how you were born of me;

it was not I who gave you breath and life, nor I who ordered the matter of your body.

The Creator of the world who formed man in the beginning and ordered the unfolding of all creation shall in his mercy,

give you back breath and life, since you now despise them for love of his laws." (...)

 

Ps 17:1bcd, 5-6, 8b & 15

  Lord, when your glory appears my joy will be full.

 

＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊      

Luke 19:11-28 J

Jesus was now near Jerusalem, and the people with him thought that God's reign was about to appear.

So as they were listening to him, Jesus went on to tell them a parable. He said,

"A man of noble birth went to a distant country in order to be crowned king, after which he planned to return home.

Before he left, he summoned ten of his servants and gave them ten pounds of silver.

 

He said, 'Put this money to work until I get back. But his compatriots, who disliked him,

sent a delegation after him with this message, 'We do not want this man to be our king!

He returned, however, appointed as king. At once he sent for the servants to whom

he had given the money, to find out what profit each had made.

The first came in, and reported, 'Sir, your pound of silver has earned ten more pounds of silver.

 

The master replied, 'Well done, my good servant! Since you have proved yourself faithful in a small matter,

I can trust you to take charge of ten cities. The second reported, 'Sir, your pound of silver earned five more pounds of silver.

The master replied, 'And you, take charge of five cities!' The third came in, and said, 'Sir, here is your money, which I hid for safekeeping.

I was afraid of you, for you are an exacting person: you take up what you did not lay down, and you reap what you did not sow!

The master replied, 'Your worthless servant, I will judge you by your own words! So you knew I was an exacting person,

taking up what I did not lay down, and reaping what I did not sow?

Why, then, did you not put my money on loan, so that, when I got back, I could have collected it with interest?'

 

Then the master said to those standing by, 'Take from him that pound, and give it to the one with ten pounds.

But they objected, 'Sir, he already has ten pounds!'

The master replied, 'I tell you, everyone who has will be given more; but from those who have nothing,

even what they have will be taken away. As for my enemies who did not want me to be their king,

bring them in, and execute them right here in front me!"

So Jesus spoke, and then he passed on ahead of them, on his way to Jerusalem.

 

Gospel Reflection ：

"Love pushes us to act."

The Books of Maccabees present an account of a time of religious persecution of the Jews and conquest by other nations.

In the first reading, the mother and her sons are threatened with execution if they don't reject their faith.

The brave mother encourages her sons to remember that all is in God's hands,

and so they shouldn't abandon the One who made all things from nothing.

Therefore, their choice is between a fear of death or a fear of the Lord. They choose to remain resolute in their fear of the Lord.

 

The Gospel presents a different kind of fear, one which is not loving reverence, but a fear of punishment for failure.

The last servant is afraid his investment will fail, and so he does nothing with the money.

There is no love or respect for the king to impel his actions, only dread, and so he remains paralysed in fear. Love pushes us to act.

It's that reverential fear of the Lord, that is a strong love of God which enables us to take a risk,

to break free of our paralysing fears and choose actions which will bear fruit and give praise to the Lord.