By Fr. Glenn Jones:
People will often complain that it’s hard to be a good person in this day and age. But is it, really?
Christians remember often those of early Christianity who had to worry about being hunted down and martyred in the Roman and other arenas … and, yet, many suffered even that rather than be unfaithful. Even today thousands of Christians are martyred annually around the world, but they remain faithful even while under threat of violent death.
A favorite in the Old Testament about faithfulness despite mortal danger is the account of Eleazar in 2 Maccabees 6 (in the “apocrypha” if you have a non-Catholic/non-Orthodox Bible). The Greek conquerors of Israel were forcing Israelites to go against God’s law or else face execution. Eleazar, “…a man advanced in age and of noble presence”, was being forced to eat pork, unclean and sinful under God’s law for the Jews. “But he, welcoming death with honor rather than life with pollution, went up to the rack of his own accord, spitting out the flesh, as men ought to go who have the courage to refuse things that it is not right … even for the natural love of life.”
What a courageous and faithful man Eleazar was … faithful even in the face of danger, challenge and martyrdom.
Even his friends had surrendered, telling him to save his life by pretending to eat the pork. “But…worthy of his years and the dignity of his old age…and of his excellent life even from childhood, and…according to the holy God-given law, he [told] them to send him to death, [saying]… ‘even if for the present I should avoid the punishment of men, yet whether I live or die I shall not escape the hands of the Almighty. Therefore, by manfully giving up my life now, I will show myself worthy of my old age and leave to the young a noble example of how to die a good death willingly and nobly for the revered and holy laws.’”
I read that for the first time back in my teens, and even now I still recall Eleazar’s example when tempted toward things not in accord with the good.
Yet, in some ways, the mere absence of active persecution in our lives makes it in some ways more challenging to be a good person, and often even more so to be a good Christian. As with romantic relationships between men and women, as long as there are no external threats—no challengers—for the one you love, you can be tempted to take them for granted. Oh, but should someone come along and show active interest, flirting to lure your loved one away … then it’s “Shields up!”; you go on defense, and you do whatever you can to keep your beloved.
Likewise, few forbid us to be good or Christian or Catholic, threatening us with mortal danger, and thus we take our faith, and salvation, for granted … tending to wander towards the sensual idols that scripture warns us about—immorality (sexual and otherwise), impurity, passion, evil desire, and that omnipresent greed and desire for more “stuff”. And if we seek to live a good and moral life, there are many who will try to draw us away from our beliefs and values—for the Christian, from our beloved faith—with the goad of criticism and the carrot of temptations.
But how many people are destroyed by wealth and obsession for it, such as with families destroyed fighting over inheritance? How many people and families devastated by surrendering to various temptations?
The author of the book of Ecclesiastes writes: “All is vanity” because he recognized that all of our work and toil and concerns for material possessions and fame in this life are, in the end, pointless. Death eventually comes for all … we leave all behind. We all end in the grave.
Christians, of course, believe in the revelation that comes from Jesus Christ—in a promise of eternal and joy-filled life with God after this life … IF we love God and neighbor, which means keeping God’s moral law, giving Him as our Creator and Father thanks and praise, helping those in need and forgiving offenses. All the rest of Jesus’ teaching is simply details on that.
And because this life is so short, should we not focus on making it a good life? … especially, O Christian, if it threatens loss of eternal life. We lose the excess we keep; we are returned a thousandfold what we give. As Jesus’ mother Mary says in Luke’s Gospel: “[God] has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly.” (Luke 1:52), echoed in James’ letter: “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” (James 4:2)
Jesus tells His disciples adamantly and repeatedly that we cannot serve both God and mammon … that our life does not consist of possessions. We cannot live primarily for this world and its petty pleasures, ignore a life in God and still expect eternal life. For the Christian, that means is almsgiving, charity, our prayers, our testimony to God as Father, of Jesus as savior, that is our true “bank” … our true investment of limitless and guaranteed yield.
So, as St. Paul teaches: Think of what is above, not of what is on earth, reminding us: “…we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive good or evil, according to what he has done in the body.” (2 Corinthians 5:10). For those who have not come to Christ, like can be said even before the world’s judgment.
Do we not all remember most fondly those who have sacrificed for our good and for our welfare? Likewise, the Christian remembers Jesus, naked and hanging on a cross having given literally everything for us, even his very life—the ultimate charity, the ultimate love. Should not any good person emulate and imitate the same in at least some degree for others … the Christian ear especially thirsting to hear: “Well done, good and faithful servant; enter into your master’s joy.” (Matthew 25:23)
Editor’s note: Rev. Glenn Jones is the Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and former pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Los Alamos.
