堅毅與永生

其中一個兄弟，代表發言說：「你想問什麼？你想由我們知道什麼？我們已經準備，寧死不願背叛我們祖先的法律。」

他在快要斷氣的一剎那，高聲說：「你這窮凶極惡的人！你使我失去現世的生命，但是宇宙的君王，必要使我們這些為他的法律而殉難的人復活，獲得永生。」

這一個以後，輪到第三個兄弟受刑了！在命令他伸出舌頭時，他就爽快地伸出，且毅然伸開雙手，慷慨地說：「這些肢體是從上天得來的，但是，現在為了他的法律，我不吝嗇這一切，希望有一天，從他那裡，仍再得到。」國王和他的侍從，都驚訝這少年人，不怕受苦的精神。

他死了以後，他們用同樣的酷刑，處罰第四個兄弟。他臨死時，這樣說：「我們這些深信天主許諾使人復活的人，死在人手中，是求之不得的；可是為你，決不會復活獲得永生。」

願我們的主耶穌基督，和那愛我們，並開恩將永遠的安慰和美好的希望，賜與我們的天主父，鼓勵你們的心，並在各種善工善言上，堅固你們。

此外，弟兄們！請為我們祈禱，好叫主的聖道，也像在你們那裡一樣，順利展開，並得到光榮；也叫我們脫離壞人與惡人，因為不是人人都有信德。主是信實的，他必堅固你們，保護你們免於凶惡。我們在主內信賴你們；你們既然現今實行了我們所吩咐的，將來也必實行。願主指引你們的心，去愛天主，並學習基督的堅忍。

「那麼，在復活的時候，這婦人是他們那一個的妻子？因為他們七個人，都娶過她為妻。」

耶穌對他們說：「今世之子也娶也嫁；但那堪得來世，及堪當由死者中復活的人，他們也不娶，也不嫁；甚至他們也不能再死，因為他們相似天使；他們既是復活之子，也就是天主之子。

「至論死者復活，梅瑟已在荊棘篇中指明了：他稱上主，為亞巴郎的天主，依撒格的天主，及雅各伯的天主。天主不是死人的天主，而是活人的天主；所有人為他都是生活的。」

At the point of death he said: "You accursed fiend, you are depriving us of this present life, but the King of the world will raise us up to live again forever. It is for his laws that we are dying."

After him the third suffered their cruel sport. He put out his tongue at once when told to do so, and bravely held out his hands, as he spoke these noble words: "It was from Heaven that I received these; for the sake of his laws I disdain them; from him I hope to receive them again." Even the king and his attendants marveled at the young man's courage, because he regarded his sufferings as nothing.

After he had died, they tortured and maltreated the fourth brother in the same way. When he was near death, he said, "It is my choice to die at the hands of men with the hope God gives of being raised up by him; but for you, there will be no resurrection to life."

May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting encouragement and good hope through his grace, encourage your hearts and strengthen them in every good deed and word.

Finally, brothers and sisters, pray for us, so that the word of the Lord may speed forward and be glorified, as it did among you, and that we may be delivered from perverse and wicked people,
for not all have faith. But the Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one. We are confident of you in the Lord that what we instruct you, you are doing and will continue to do. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the endurance of Christ.

Jesus said to them, "The children of this age marry and remarry; but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. They can no longer die, for they are like angels; and they are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise. That the dead will rise even Moses made known in the passage about the bush, when he called out 'Lord, ' the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive."