32nd Sunday Ordinary Time - Year C


SEVEN BROTHERS TORTURED

During the two centuries before the birth of Jesus, Israel was under the heel of Syria. The Syrian King, Antiochus IV, wanted to replace all local culture and religion with his own, taken from Greece.
Today's first reading teaches the story of a family of Jewish martyrs who choose death rather than eat the forbidden pork. It is significant that this is one of the few Old Testament passages that expresses faith in a resurrection.

Seven brothers with their mother were tortured

He will guard you from the evil one

 

I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
Whose wife will she be?

SEVEN BROTHERS MARRIED

It is strange to realize that most of the people of the Old Testament did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. By the first century B.C. a few Jews had come to accept the idea. Conservatives, such as the Sadducees, still rejected it. They cringed at Jesus' preaching about the resurrection and tried to belittle him. Today's attack is prompted by an obscure law. If a man died without children his brother, his brother had to marry the widow and have children by her. They were still considered the children of the first husband.

Related: Resources on Sunday Readings - Clipart, homelies, articles, coloring pages, music: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John

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