33rd Week in OT 2019 - Tuesday - Examples of faith for young people and the whole nation

What a powerful passage from second Maccabees this morning: the martyrdom account of the elderly sage Eleazar. We come to understand the reasons for his willingness to suffer death. For one, he dies for the sake of the holy laws of his faith, refusing to violate them and refusing to be forced to violate them. And two, he stands for his faith to set good example for the young believers of his faith. If he can’t courageously stand for his faith, how could the young people be expected to keep the faith? I love how second Maccabees puts this: his ability to make up his mind was “the merited distinction of his gray hair.”

Young people need adults to set good example, to be exemplars of faith. When we look around, in 2019, at the lack of young people attending Mass and professing the faith, we wonder, where was the failure to set good example? On the part of bishops and priests allowing secular values to infiltrate divine worship, not to mention the scandal of their misdeeds? On the part of catechists failing to teach the faith with conviction and its eternal consequences? On the part of parents valuing materialism over religion, making excuses for not coming to Church, treating the faith as less important than worldly success? Likely all these things.

I for one believe young people are starving for God, to know God, to experience the stability that comes from the concrete truths of our faith amidst all the chaos of the world, to experience the beauty of our ever-ancient, ever-new religion, to participate in the charitable outreach to the poor our faith commands.

But we need Eleazar’s, men and women of conviction, who refuse to violate our sacred laws because they come from God and his representatives on earth, and men and women of courage, who are unashamed to preach the truth when our culture tries to silence us. Men and women who are able to witness why living for Jesus Christ matters more than anything else, like Zacchaeus in the Gospel, willing to make a fool out of himself in front of his peers, climbing trees to see Jesus, willing to give his possessions to serve Jesus. Courage requires sacrifice and sacrifice requires courage.

May our love for Jesus impel us to set heroic example for those of weaker faith today, especially the young, may we be models of courage and “examples of virtue not only for the young but for the whole nation” for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That our bishops and priests may be models of faith and preach the Gospel faithfully amidst the pressures of the world.

That parents may be models of faith for their children, and center their family life on the Gospel through worship, prayer, and charity.

That God will raise up many priestly and religious vocations in our diocese and that young people may strive after holiness and God’s will in their lives.

For an end to all scandal which drives souls away from Jesus, that we may be guarded by all error and heresy, and that all Christians may head the call to spread the Gospel.

That Christ the Good Shepherd will draw close to all who suffer, the sick, the needy, victims of injustice, and the dying.

We pray in a special way during this month of November for all the faithful departed, for those whose names are written in our parish book of the names of the dead, all deceased members of St. Ignatius of Antioch Parish, and our deceased family members and friends, deceased clergy and religious, those who fought and died for our freedom and for X. for whom this mass is offered.

O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.