NOTES for Ma2 6:18-31

The story from the Second Book of Maccabees is difficult. Today it is very hard to understand the very fact of the dietary prohibition against pork, and harder still to understand the readiness to die rather than violate it. This is partly because pork is tasty and has long been part of our culinary heritage. But pork is not the point: if it were not pork, it would be something else. In other words, the Lord will ask us not to do something; we accept this and refrain from doing it, but in the eyes of the outside world it is nonsense. If something cannot be explained rationally or plainly makes a person give up a pleasure, it is immediately declared obscurantism and stupidity. You believe in God? Then believe quietly. Why also regard divorce as an improper way to solve problems? Why openly acknowledge that you believe in the Resurrection and the virgin birth? Why do all this when you could be a normal person? It is enough merely to demonstrate, even formally, loyalty to the world and its opinion. Eleazar, glorified as a saint, therefore becomes for us a very important example of how consistent a person must be in professing the faith.