2 Maccabees 7:1-2. The beginning of the story of seven brothers who were tortured and killed for refusing the king's order to eat pork. At the very beginning, one of the brothers asks the king "What do you intend to ask and learn from us? For we are ready to die rather than transgress the laws of our fathers."

This story is, in part, about a king's pride and the corrupting influence of power on a ruler who cannot accept that some of his subjects are worshiping a higher good than him. We can all act like this sometimes, to a lesser extent, obviously, than this king. We can dig in our heels and insist that other people bow to our will for no reason other than our own pride. Often, when the subject matter is not worth fighting about, they do bow to our will, just to keep the peace. But we never know when we might be pushing something on which they hold a firm objection or belief, and then our pride and insistence that they agree with us can have disastrous effects. It can ruin relationships. It is, right now, ruining many relationships.

That brings me to the second part of what I want to say about this reading. Right now I do not know what our leaders and the people with power of over us are intending for us, why they are making us do so many of the things they are insisting we do. They often claim it is because of "science," but then ignore the actual science. The casually violate their own rules, clearly knowing the risk they say they are protecting us from is not so great. They are demanding unreasonable obedience to their orders, and logic has gone out the window.

Nothing makes any sense right now, and it makes me very suspicious. It is all as unreasonable as a king killing a whole family for refusing to eat pork. Something is going on, and I don't know what it is, but it is not good, and it is clearly not for the common good, nor the individual good. It is nefarious and we have to loudly ask questions until we get honest, true answers.