Apocryphal Scripture of the Week: (see Doctrine and Covenants 91)
Eleazar—yet another wise old Jewish man from the scriptures—faces a dilemma. The heathens currently in control of Jerusalem are forcing the believers to violate the Law of Moses by eating pork. Like the prophet Daniel once did, however, Eleazar refuses to do so, honoring his covenant with God.
He is even friends with some of the people preparing the meat, who urge him to bring his own meat and then pretend to participate in the Hellenistic sacrifice to save himself from torture and death without breaking God’s law. Even this, however, Eleazar refuses to do.
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“‘For,’ said he, ‘it does not become our time of life to pretend, and so lead many young people to suppose that Eleazar when ninety years old has gone over to heathenists, and to be led astray through me, because of my pretense for the sake of this short and insignificant life, while I defile and disgrace my old age.
“‘For even if for the present I escape 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 prove myself worthy.’”
(2 Maccabees 6:24-27)
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It’s not enough to just avoid doing bad things. If we’re afraid of being caught doing good and hide what makes us different, what’s even the point? The warning not to “fear man more than God” almost goes without saying, but what I find noteworthy in this passage is Eleazar’s focus not just on his own worthiness and salvation, but on the effect his perceived complicity with heathens would have on those around him.
We find a close parallel in Arthur Miller’s masterpiece The Crucible. In it, John Proctor is falsely accused of witchcraft and decides to suffer being hanged rather than confess to crimes he never committed. He does so not only to protect the integrity of his name, but so that his testimony will not be weaponized against other innocent victims of the Salem Witch Trials. It is a legacy that he seals with his own blood.
None of us have to deal with these extreme scenarios. But when someone asks you what’s important to you, what your goals are, even what you did over the weekend, do you carefully cater your response based on whether the other person believes as you do? Do you simply watch any movie or Youtube video someone wants to show you because you’re afraid of offending them?
I think we all have room to improve in this arena: in being unashamed of who we are both in public and private. Masks may be important right now in order to minimize temporal damage to society, but wearing masks to hide our personalities or our convictions will inflict spiritual damage to society’s soul.
As I struggle to improve myself, I look forward to the day when I can be so unapologetically open about who I am that others will want to do the same.
The Commonplace Notebook 