From time to time I see ads on TV and on the internet for ways to have a chiseled body, with well defined muscles. I’m sure that some of the ads were photoshopped a bit, but even so, I often thought about what it would be like to have better muscle definition, stronger muscles, and a stronger appearance. But to truly get into that shape, I would have to give up a lot of foods that I enjoy eating, and actually go to a gym on a regular basis and lift weights, neither of which sounds that appealing to me. And looking at me, you can see which path I choose!
Each in our own way, we probably all have things that we want, but for which we’re not really willing to work. We have a desire for something, but we’re not really willing to do the things to make that desire an achieved reality. That can even be the case when it comes to our faith.
In today’s first reading we hear about a mother and her children who are being tortured and killed because they’re not willing to break God’s law, even though the local government is telling them to. The back story is that the Greeks had taken over the Holy Land, and wanted everyone to live in the Greek manner of life: they placed idols in the temple, forbade parents to have their sons circumcised, and forced the Jews to eat pork, all as ways of rejecting the Jewish religion. The part we hear in today’s passage highlights a heroic sacrifice that they make, simply because they would rather obey God and be tortured and killed than disobey God and enjoy prosperity.
But this heroic action probably did not start the moment they were arrested and brought before the king. They likely had made smaller sacrifices to be faithful to God throughout their lives, maybe not even perfectly, but still, doing their best to say yes to God in their choices in small ways, which helped them to say yes to God when it was a major decision with drastic consequences.
I think we can sometimes be as clueless as the Sadducees in today’s Gospel when it comes to the Resurrection. We desire to be raised, to reign with Jesus in heaven. But when it comes to the daily ways that we show that we want to accept this gift of eternal life, we’re not quite there, and we don’t want it that much. We want the end result without wanting the daily effort it takes to obtain that result.
Being welcomed into heaven is all about putting behind us the fallen parts of our nature by God’s grace, and accepting God’s grace to choose things which do not always seem to desirable, but which help us to say yes to God and say no to our fallen nature. St. Paul talks about it as putting to death the old man (Adam, who said no to God), and living the life of the new man (Jesus, who said yes to God). It’s easy to want to do that in major ways, and praise God when that happens, when we’re able to recognize a major temptation as something leading us away from God, and reject it. But it’s much harder, but more efficacious, to say yes to God in small ways, which, over time, make us more like Christ.
I would suggest two small ways that we can live more for Christ, and bring us closer to the desire to be welcomed into heaven. The first you’re already doing today. And that’s attending Mass every Sunday and Holyday, unless you're sick or homebound, or necessary work prevents you from attending. Attending Mass might not seem like much, but that sacrifice to set aside your own desires on how to use your time, and then to drive to Mass to worship God, builds up our spiritual muscles. You may not see it making a difference, but if we could see the difference it makes in our souls, we would be amazed. Those who go to Mass still have temptations, but it’s much easier to reject temptation and sin when we’re filled with the grace of the Body and Blood of Christ, received in a state of grace. Even if we still sin even though we attend weekly Mass, imagine the other sins you may have fallen into without attending Mass. And daily Mass is even better, still!
A second small way is abstaining from meat every Friday, not just the Fridays of Lent, unless it’s a solemnity, like on All Saints Day. We might think that it’s not a big deal, and it’s not, especially if we like fish. But saying no to our desire to eat whatever we want to is a great small sacrifice that prepares us to be faithful in bigger sacrifices that may come our way. Sometimes, if visiting family or friends, that may not be possible, so maybe try fasting from lunch, or doing an extra work of charity on that day. I try to abstain from meat on all Fridays, and I have seen the difference it makes in my own spiritual life.
When I hear the story of the great martyrs, I am inspired by how they suffered for Christ in such major ways! Some of the pain I think I could suffer through. Some, like getting boiling water poured on me or having my fingernails pulled out, do not seem so easy to endure. But in reality, if I’m not doing the smaller, daily sacrifices, whatever they might be, then I’m not going to be successful in the larger sacrifices if and when they ever come my way. If we truly want to be in that number when the saints go marching in, to be as faithful as the mother and her children in not rejecting God even when it meant coercion, torture, and death by the government, then let us follow the advice of St. Paul to die to our fallen nature by little daily or weekly sacrifices, and live in the new life of the risen Christ.