The word of God is a vital and dynamic force from the first moment of creation to the present hour, as it compels us to step into the light of truth. The word isn’t a law that binds us but rather a call that liberates us.

Torture, mutilation, and execution are subjects most of us would prefer to avoid. Because we tend to stick to noble ideals in church—unconditional love, justice, peace, charity, morality, forgiveness—it is especially jarring to find a reading like this one from Maccabees assigned a public hearing.

Some Sadducees came up. This is the Jewish party that denies any possibility of resurrection. They asked, “Teacher, Moses wrote us that if a man dies and leaves a wife but no child, his brother is obligated to take the widow to wife and get her with child.

In 1995 gray wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park after a 70-year absence. They had been killed in the decades prior to the point of local extinction, mostly to protect the big business of cattle ranching, largely on federal land, in the region. At the time, I was a reporter for the Great Falls Tribune, a Montana newspaper, serving as their D.C. correspondent.

There are times when the skeptic in me refuses to give rational assent to religious doctrines, like the Trinity, the Incarnation, or the Resurrection. Thankfully, pure rationality is not the only, and certainly not the best, means of coming to understand deeply spiritual truths.

At a leadership retreat, two teams were given the task of getting from point A to point B on a huge Twister-like grid. The rules were very specific about what moves forward, backward, and sideways were legal and which weren’t. It was very apparent that a straight run by every team member would not do the trick.

In my first year of priesthood I was privileged to bring Holy Communion monthly to a 95-year-old woman who was being cared for by her only surviving child, a 75-year-old man. There were some months when her health was better than his, and she found herself taking care of him. She was a remarkable person.

We pray for forgiveness of our failings and for encouragement to follow the Lord.

You are called to care for creation not only as responsible citizens, but also as followers of Christ.