heaven ... I hope to receive them again from Him” — “That I may receive thee again with thy brethren.” They raised their eyes beyond the perishable things of this earth, to those things which are heavenly and eternal; and they looked to being rewarded by God in another world. They gave up their earthly life, in order to gain eternal life.
From their firm faith proceeded a great fear and love of God: “We are ready to die rather than transgress the laws of God.”
2. Their firm hope in the promises of God. They believed in the future Redeemer; and, on account of this faith, God assisted them by His grace, without which no one can keep the commandments.
Unlawful obedience. The example of these holy martyrs teaches us that we must not obey our superiors when they command us to do anything which God has forbidden, or when they forbid anything which God has commanded. In such cases we must say, as did the Machabean brothers: “The law of God forbids it; we will not do it.”
The commandment of abstinence. The seven Machabees died martyrs of obedience to God’s commandments. They preferred to suffer fhe most cruel tortures rather than transgress the commandment not to touch swine’s flesh. Jesus Christ, through his Church, has given us a similar law in the Third Commandment of the Church.
The duty of parents in the education of their children. Parents should learn from the mother of the Machabees to bring up their children in the fear and love of God, and to care for their souls more than for anything else, so that they may look to meet them again in eternal life. “What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul!”
Commemoration of the holy Machabees. The Church commemorates these martyrs on August 1st: “For”, says St. Gregory Nazianzen, “what would not these men, who suffered martyrdom before Christ suffered, have endured if they had been called to suffer persecution after His Incarnation, and had present before their eyes the Death which He suffered for our salvation 1 Yes, I think I may assume, in union with all friends of God, that there was a certain mysterious communion between the martyrs of the Old Testament and Jesus Christ, without belief in whom none of those martyrs before the Incarnation could have attained to such a glorious end.”
Application. Put yourself in the place of the youngest brother, and imagine the king speaking to you, making you splendid promises on the one hand, and, on the other, threatening you with death by torture. Would you remain firm, and suffer a lingering martyrdom rather than offend God by committing a grievous sin? “We will rather die than transgress God’s law” had been the maxim of these brothers’ lives from their earliest youth,
