32nd Sunday -- To Think Outside the Box

(In light of recent developments by the Vatican concerning events at Medjugorje, the link below concerns an excellent article that uncovers some important facts on the history of what has become nearly a household word for Marian devotion. Although written about a year ago, the facts have not changed. Although the jury is still officially out one must be very cautious for the skeptics, of which I have always been for good reasons, are certainly justified in their position. Is this truly of God? Read with an open mind and heart):

http://www.crisismagazine.com/2012/the-devil-and-medjugorje

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"He is not God of the dead, but of the living . . . all are alive."

The Word for Sunday: http://usccb.org/bible/readings/111013.cfm

2 Mac 7: 1-2, 9-14
2 Thes 2: 16 – 3:5
Lk 20: 27-38

To “think outside the box” is a popular expression which challenges our same-old-same-old way of doing things. Essentially, one who “thinks outside the box” is open to new ideas, new opinions, and a new direction. To remain in the box would be to maintain the status quo, sometimes at all costs, be closed minded and fearful of new ideas or ways of doing things. “Plan B” would never be an option.

One of the well-known auto insurance companies which advertise frequently on television, recently showed a commercial in which this same point was made. In a large room, about ten people were literally crammed side by side into a box which came up to their waist level. The narrator challenges them to think differently about how they insure their car. One member of this boxed in group decides to “go for it” and gingerly steps over the barrier to consider a new choice but then suddenly pulls back into the box after his foot hits the floor. The lesson is that if you remain with your old insurance carrier you won’t have the advantages of this new one. Point made.

Today’s Gospel from Luke 20 presents an argument both from the Sadducees and a counter response from Jesus. This passage is not a miracle story or preaching from the mountaintop. Rather, we see Jesus engaged in a legal discussion with religious experts of Jewish Law, or at least their interpretation of that law.

The matter at hand, despite a somewhat absurd example about marriage and remarriage and the afterlife – “Now at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be?” – is not about marriage but rather an attempt by the Sadducees, who did not believe in resurrection, to reduce Jesus’ teaching to something meaningless.

Our Lord, never to be boxed in, counters with a new perspective; a challenge to think outside the box about the afterlife. What is of this world, marriage for example, is not of the next because the next life is a whole different sort of reality: “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 . . .” In other words, Jesus implies his teaching calls disciples to think differently about the meaning and direction of this life; to step outside and imagine a new reality. Belief in resurrection implies a new way we look at life - that there is hope for the future. But also, as one writer put it: "Through the cross and resurrection of Jesus also led to new formulations about God. In the sacred texts, resurrection is represented as the apex of the biblical saga of salvation, beginning with human need and culminating in God's deliverance from every evil, even death." (Pheme Perkins: Resurrection)

While one concept of God may be more earthly than heavenly, as the Sadducees rejected the possibility of life resurrected, Jesus opens the truth of life after life and a God who stands among the living.

For the Sadducees, it really isn’t the threat of new thinking so much as it is a threat to their own authority over the people. Along with the Pharisees, who believed in a time of resurrection, they were the grand overseers of proper Jewish obedience and righteous living. It is the law, given by God, which governs their lives. Yet, because that law never changes so too their concept of God.

Jesus quotes from the Book of Exodus 3: 6 a vision of God who is Lord of history and ever calling us to hope and assuring us that his promise of the future is not merely a theological opinion but a true reality: “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 . . . all are alive.”

Belief in bodily resurrection was a relatively new concept in the Jewish faith by the time Jesus appeared on the scene. Still, the broad inclusiveness of Jesus’ teaching challenged the status quo and even more the authority of those who did all they could to stay in the box and to keep the people with them.

In this month of prayer for all the faithful departed, do we truly believe they are not dead but alive? We pray for living souls, for those who lived and walked and served among us in human bodies but now live, through the mercy of God, in a new form of existence. While our lives, even after the sad loss of a loved one, move on let us not forget that our prayers do indeed make a difference on their behalf.

Our first reading from Maccabees reinforces this ancient Jewish belief in resurrection and the active afterlife in the example of seven brothers and their mother who were willing martyrs for the faith: “The King of the world will raise us up to live again forever. It is for his laws that we are dying . . .”

So, maybe a good reflection is for all of us to ask the basic question about what we believe, particularly about the “resurrection of the dead.” Are we standing in the box, fearful to embrace a deeper understanding of those beliefs and how it applies to our life here? What is my belief about those who have died? Are they just gone? If I believe they are alive, what does that say about the way I live my life knowing that no one will escape death? As we receive Jesus’ Body and Blood in the Eucharist, do we truly believe this is a living presence?

Some food for thought . . .

Almighty and merciful God,
graciously keep from us all adversity,
so that, unhindered in mind and body alike,
we may pursue in freedom of heart.

(Roman Missal - Collect for Sunday)

Insight Scoop

Faith, Hope, and Heaven

"Christ Glorified in the Court of Heaven" by Fra Angelico (1428)

A Scriptural Reflection on the Readings for Sunday, November 10, 2013 | Carl E. Olson

Readings:
• 2 Mc 7:1-2, 9-14
• Ps 17:1, 5-6, 8, 15
• 2 Thes 2:16-3:5
• Lk 20:27-38

“Let us put it very simply: man needs God, otherwise he remains without hope.” That statement by Benedict XVI, made in his 2007 encyclical, Spe Salvi (“Saved In Hope”), serves well as a prologue to today’s readings. Each has something to say about the virtue of hope, which is, the Holy Father notes, closely intertwined with the virtue of faith, “so much so that in several passages the words ‘faith’ and ‘hope’ seem interchangeable.”

Both 1 and 2 Maccabees describe the Jewish struggle against the political domination and religious suppression inflicted, first, by the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt and, later, by the Seleucid dynasty of Syria. The story from 2 Maccabees of the seven brothers took place sometime in the early to mid-second century B.C. The story demonstrates, rather dramatically, that some just Israelites would rather die than renounce or “transgress the laws of our ancestors.” This resolve was based in their belief that “the King of the world”—that is, God—“will raise us up to live again forever.” One of the brothers spoke directly and passionately about his hope of “being raised up by him”, while flatly declaring that his oppressors would not experience resurrection from death to life.

The passage’s description of martyrdom and the Jewish belief in a future resurrection of God’s faithful ones, provides some helpful context for Jesus’ teachings about the afterlife. The Sadducees were an influential group that arose within Palestinian Judaism around the time recorded in 2 Maccabees. During Jesus’ earthly life, the high priest and the temple authorities were Sadducees (Acts 4:1; 5:17). They were distinguished by a staunch, even radical, adherence to the laws of Moses alone; they believed the Torah did not allow for or teach the resurrection from the dead, a belief held by the Pharisees.

The Sadducees presented a dilemma to Jesus based on the levirate law (Deut. 25:5), which stated that if a married man died childless, his brother was obligated to marry his widow. Jesus pointed out there is no marriage in the afterlife because there is no death or procreation in that state. He then went to the heart of the matter, which had to do with God’s nature. Having called out to Moses from the burning bush, God declared: “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” pointed out that those men “all are alive” to God, for he is the source and realization of an eternal hope.

The Bible is the story of God calling man out of sin and to his eternal home. Throughout the Old Testament there is a growing awareness of a hope for the Kingdom of God and an eternal, perfect covenant to be established by the Messiah. While always rooted in dependence upon God and His promises, that hope often focused on material prosperity and freedom from oppression. This hope was strongly connected to wisdom, which is a trusting knowledge of God’s goodness and faithfulness. “Know that wisdom is such to your soul,” wrote the author of Proverbs, “if you find it, there will be a future, and your hope will not be cut off” (Prov. 24:14). There was a gradual realization of an afterlife beyond the earthly realm. “Hope in the bodily resurrection of the dead established itself as a consequence intrinsic to faith in God as creator of the whole man, soul and body” (CCC, 992).

Hope is central to the Christian life. It is also distinctive, a mark of the uniqueness of the Christian view of life, death, and history. The Church has always taught that if death was not and cannot be conquered, there is no hope. And if there is no hope beyond this temporal realm, there is no meaningful life in this world. Any vision of life that ignores the reality of mortality cannot be a source of authentic hope, for such hope is a grace and a source of everlasting encouragement.

(This "Opening the Word" column originally appeared in the November 7, 2010, issue of Our Sunday Visitor newspaper.)

Do What He Tells You

SUNDAY READINGS - 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

FIRST READING: 2 Maccabees 7:1-2; 9-14. It happened that seven brothers and their mother were arrested and were being compelled by the king, under torture with whips and cords, to partake of unlawful swine's flesh. One of them, acting as their spokesman, said, "What do you intend to ask and learn from us? For we are ready to die rather than transgress the laws of our fathers." And when the second was at his last breath, he said, "You accursed wretch, you dismiss us from this present life, but the King of the universe will raise us up to an everlasting renewal of life, because we have died for his laws."

After him, the third was the victim of their sport. When it was demanded, he quickly put out his tongue and courageously stretched forth his hands, and said nobly, "I got these from Heaven, and because of his laws I disdain them, and from him I hope to get them back again." As a result the king himself and those with him were astonished at the young man's spirit, for he regarded his sufferings as nothing.

When he too had died, they maltreated and tortured the fourth in the same way. And when he was near death, he said, "One cannot but choose to die at the hands of men and to cherish the hope that God gives of being raised again by him. But for you there will be no resurrection to life!"

EXPLANATION: The two books of Maccabees describe the war of liberation which the Jews, led by Mattathias and his sons, waged and eventually won against the pagan, tyrant king of Syria. The desire and ambition of Antiochus IV (175-163 B.C.) was to abolish the Jewish religion and the Temple of Jerusalem and hellenize all Jews. He was foiled in this sacrilegious attempt by the courage of the Maccabees, and by the spirit of love for faith and father-land with which they inspired their fellow-Jews. While the first book gives a more basic history of this period of resistance, the second book is more inclined to sermonize and introduce edifying details which may not always have happened.

The story we read today is substantially historical. There were hundreds of such examples of the persecution and death of Jews in the attempt to make them abandon their religion. The cruelties inflicted were common practice at the time not only in Palestine but in Egypt, Greece and elsewhere.
Seven brothers . . . their mother: The persecutors thought that by forcing Jews to eat pork, a food forbidden by the law of Moses, they would make them abandon their faith. The loyal Jews preferred to die rather than violate God's law. By having the mother of the seven boys present, they thought that her love for them and her anguish at seeing them tortured would move her to beg them to give in and save their lives. Instead, she encouraged them to persevere and bear their tortures. She herself was martyred last of all.
What . . . us?: The first brother bravely tells the king how foolish he is if he thinks that he can force them to betray the faith of their ancestors.
King . . . raise us up . . . laws: The second brother tells the king what value he sets on this short life, for he is convinced that the King of the world---God---will give him an everlasting life after his earthly life is over.
courageously . . . his hands: He gladly holds out his tongue and his hands to be chopped off, for he knows that it was God who gave them to him and he is certain that God will give them back to him again in the next life.
for you . . . no resurrection to life: The fourth proclaims, not only his solid belief in a future life of happiness for those who are loyal to God and his laws in this life, but he boldly tells his persecutors that their resurrection from the dead will not be to life. It will not be a life of happiness for them but one to which eternal death would be preferable.

APPLICATION: The example of these seven sons who, in the presence of one another and in the presence of their loving mother, were one by one slowly martyred for their faith, is an example that deserves to be forever preserved (and it is) in the annals of human history. Whether they expressed in words all that the inspired author attributes to them is not of great importance. They certainly expressed it in their pious and patient acceptance of their tortures at the hands of irreligious and inhuman tyrants. They were sustained and strengthened in their suffering by the pious exhortations of their truly loyal and faith-inspired mother. More especially were they sustained by the firm conviction that the God of the universe, the God of justice and love, for whose laws they were losing their earthly lives, had a glorious and eternal life in store for them.

Millions of Christians have died as noble martyrs for their faith, down through the ages. There are millions who are suffering slow martyrdom for that same faith today. They, however, had and have the example of Christ, the Son of God made man, who suffered the slow and cruel martyrdom of crucifixion for their takes. So in a sense the mother and seven brothers of today's reading deserve greater admiration. However, it was the same God who gave the necessary grace to all martyrs. It is in the presence of that same God that all Jewish and Christian martyrs, and others who have died for conscience sake, are enjoying together their eternal reward today.

All of these are held up to us for our admiration, and we must indeed admire them. The atheist who has esteem for intellectual integrity and uprightness must admire one who is willing to sacrifice his life in defence of his convictions. However, for us Christians, admiration is not enough. Attempted imitation, at least is necessary. We may shrink now from the thought of ever having to face even half of what our martyrs suffered. They, too, most probably shivered at the very thought of what awaited them. But when the moment of trial came the grace of God gave them all the strength they needed. God's grace would also come to our aid, if ever we were called on to suffer and die for our faith. Our only sure guarantee, however, is the present strength and meaningfulness of our faith in our daily lives.

There were many Jews in the days of the Maccabees who gave up their faith when the persecution began. There were many Christians, too, who went over to the enemy in order to save their earthly lives and property. There are many leaders of the anti-God and anti-Christian campaign today, who were once Christians of a kind. No martyr ever died willingly for a cause in which he did not believe. No Christian ever died for the faith unless he believed firmly in it and lived his daily life in accordance with its precepts.

This is a test which we can all apply to ourselves. We need not ask ourselves whether we would willingly accept torture and death for the sake of our faith. We must, however, ask ourselves if we are willingly and truly living that faith in our daily lives. That in itself is not an easy, painless effort for any one of us. For some it is one prolonged martyrdom. But think of the firm convictions that strengthened that Jewish mother and her seven sons. These convictions should be more firmly established still in the minds of all true Christians. If we are loyal to God, he will reward us. If we are faithful to his laws, he will be true to his promises. If, when called on to do so, we give our earthly lives for his sake, he has an eternal life of unending joy and happiness ready for us when we close our eyes in death.

SECOND READING: 2 Thessalonians 2: 16-3:5. May our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.

Brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed on and triumph, as it did among you, and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men, for not all have faith. But the Lord is faithful; he Will strengthen you and guard you from evil. And we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things which we command. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.

EXPLANATION: In these six verses of his second letter to the Thessalonians, St. Paul prays for them to God the Son and to the Father. He prays that they may persevere loyally in the faith that they profess. In return, he asks them to pray that he will be able to continue to spread the Christian faith to many others. There are difficulties and opponents, but Paul is confident that Christ will continue to guard and strengthen them in their loyal service to the faith and the precepts which he, Paul, has given to them.
May our Lord Jesus Christ himself: Paul puts God the Son before the Father here because, in the previous verses, he has told them that the Gospel has given them a share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul prays now that Christ and God the Father, who was so generous with them, when he sent his Son for their eternal consolation and hope, would continue to console and strengthen them in their Christian faith, and that they would practise "every good work and word."
word of the Lord . . . on: Paul's life-ambition since his conversion was to spread the good news of salvation to all men, so that all would welcome it, as the Thessalonians had.
wicked and evil men: Paul has met with obstacles to his preaching of the Gospel in Corinth, from where he is writing this letter. These obstacles are the Jews and some of his Greek converts. Among the Jews there were some who were malicious in their opposition. They were evil men (they had accused him before the Roman pro-Consul, Gallion). Others were less guilty. But they were confused in their interpretation of what and whom the Messiah should be, and therefore what the Christian message was.
not . . . faith: Some of his Corinthian converts did not live up to the faith which he taught them. "Not everyone listens to the Gospel," he said to the Romans (Rom. 10: 16).
The Lord . . . faithful: He, Christ, is faithful. He keeps his promises. He will protect you against all opposition.
You . . . evil: In Jewish theology, the Evil One or Satan, the Impeder, was the leader of the wicked angels.
Lord . . . your hearts: Paul prays that Christ will govern their thoughts so that they will continue to love God, and be faithful and loyal to Christ and his teaching.

APPLICATION: St. Paul was a man of God and one full of human understanding. He knew and appreciated the difficulties that converts from paganism to Christianity had to endure. He was ever ready to help them. He tells them that he is begging Christ, and God the Father, to console and strengthen them so that they may continue to live their faith.

He then asks for their prayers. These prayers are not for any personal needs of his own, and he had temporal and spiritual needs, but that the Gospel, the word of the Lord, might make progress, might reach out to more and more people. He is making this very same request of us today, through this reading from his Epistle.

We are living in one of the most troubled periods of man's history on earth. A great part of our world has made immense progress in science, technology, medicine and other branches of learning, has raised the standard of living, increased the comforts of life and lengthened life expectancy. Yet, man's social conscience has not kept pace with his material improvement. In fact, individual men and whole nations, have become more selfish and less inclined to take a human interest in their less fortunate neighbors.

There are millions living in destitution, not only in the underdeveloped parts of our globe but amidst the wealth and luxury of the richer nations too. Communism has been proposed and is being put into action in parts of the world as a cure for the unequal distribution of this world's goods. However, the poor and the powerless under communism find that they have exchanged one set of selfish masters for a more selfish and more merciless set of tyrants. The theory of the common ownership of all things is based on the false premise that all men are equally honest, and that each will play his full part in producing the goods necessary for all. A more basic error still in the communist theory, is that man's life ends like the cow or the ass, in the grave. There is no God and therefore no future life according to the communist preachers. If that theory were true, by what right could the rulers expect honesty, truth, self-sacrifice, brotherly love, from their subjects? If there is no higher law-giver and no higher ruler than the whip of the slave-driver, why should any sane man exert himself or put himself out to provide for the common good, as long as he can escape the eye of the whip-holder? What have men in common, if they are no different and have no higher end or purpose in life, than that of a herd of cattle in a field? What basis is this for brotherly love or interest in one's neighbor?

Bad philosophy and worse theology can never cure this world's ills. We need the truths of Christianity put into daily practise by rich and by poor, by nations as well as by individuals. All men on earth are adopted sons of God. All men on earth are brothers of one another, because they are brothers of Christ who became one of us, in order to bring all of us into the family of God. We must let these basic truths govern our lives and our actions. We must do all in our power to give the knowledge of these truths of the Christian faith to all the nations of the earth. St. Paul asks us today, to pray that this will come to pass. We must listen to his request. We should never allow a day to pass without fervently begging God to spread his kingdom throughout the whole world.

We must also give the lesson of good example to all those with whom we come in contact. We must take an active part and give whatever aid we can to those truly Christian societies which are working so hard to improve the lot of the underprivileged at home and abroad. We must exert our Christian influence on public opinion and on national politics. It should not be the success of one particular party that should interest us but the Christian principles of our public representatives. If the Christian nations were truly Christian, brotherly love would spread out from them to the whole world. The causes of unrest and strife within nations would be removed. Fear of aggression among nations would gradually disappear. Vast sums wasted on weapons of war could be spent in the improvement of the underprivileged nations.

The greatest need of our world today is a return to the open acknowledgement of the Fatherhood of God and the true brotherhood of all men. When these basic truths penetrate the social consciences of men and of nations, we can expect an end to hatred and division, to wars and to the wanton destruction of the gifts which God gave us. He gave us these to make our lives less difficult and more productive of good works.

GOSPEL: Luke 20: 27-38. There came to Jesus some Sadducees, those who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question, saying, "Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take the wife and raise up children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first took a wife, and died without children; and the second and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. Afterward the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife."

And Jesus said to them, "The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are accounted worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die any more, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living; for all live to him."

EXPLANATION: The Sadducees were a particular party in Judaism, since the time of the Maccabees. They held some political and theological views that were not generally accepted by the ordinary people, nor, especially, by the Pharisees who were the more numerous and more influential party. One of the doctrines held by the Pharisees, and by the majority of Jews, was the resurrection after death. This the Sadducees denied. Knowing that Jesus taught the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, they came to him with what they thought was a "case," which would prove how ridiculous this idea of resurrection was.

They posed the case of a woman who had successively and lawfully married seven brothers according to the levirate law (see Dt. 25: 5-10). If this woman and the seven brothers rose from the dead, whose wife would she be? She was the lawful wife of all seven. Jesus answered their question.
The . . . of this age marry: Marriage was instituted as the means of propagating the human race on this earth. It was a divine institution.
those . . . worthy . . . resurrection: It will be different in the life hereafter. Those who will be raised to the new and eternal life will not marry, because the purpose and need for marriage will no longer exist. The number of God's citizens in heaven will be complete.
equal to angels: The resurrected bodies will be different from our earthly bodies. Sexual and other instincts, necessary in this life, will be absent from the risen bodies. St. Paul calls the risen bodies "spiritual" bodies. "So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown in the earth is subject to decay, what rises is incorruptible. What is sown is ignoble, what rises is glorious. Weakness is sown, strength rises up. A natural body is put down, a spiritual body comes up" (1 Cor. 15:42-44). And so in this sense the risen bodies will be like the angels.
die any more: The dead will rise to live eternally. Everything corruptible in our make-up will disappear. We shall be different, yet recognizable to one another.
Sons of the resurrection: As a result of Christ's Incarnation, death and resurrection we shall rise from the dead as adopted sons of God.
God of Abraham . . . Jacob: The Sadducees knew their Scripture. Our Lord now quotes Moses, their great leader and law-giver, as calling God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He argues from this. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are not dead and gone, because God is a God of the living, not of the dead. He can have no interest or care for that which does not exist.
all live to him: The Patriarchs, and all men of the past ages, who were true to him by following his revelation or the light of their consciences (in the case of the pagan nations) are awaiting their resurrection. Therefore, they are not eternally dead, but alive in some way which is known only to God. Resurrection was not possible until Christ completed his salvific mission and was raised from the dead, "the first fruits" of all others.

APPLICATION: We can thank the Sadducees today. They came to our Lord with what they thought was a case that would make the doctrine of the resurrection look very ridiculous. It would have appeared so, if it were understood in the crude sense which they gave it, namely, that we would come forth again from the grave in the very same bodies which we now have, with all their needs and instincts.

Our Lord corrected that erroneous idea. We shall all rise to a new and eternal life, in a form and an existence very different from that of our present life. Thus, the question of ownership of wives or property will not, and cannot, arise in our new life. He gave us a brief but basic description of what our risen bodies will be. I am sure that most of us would love to know a lot more about what our future state will be like. But if we knew all, then where would our faith and trust in God come in? Some saints are said to have had brief visions of the joys of heaven. They wanted to die immediately in order to get there. God wants each one of us to earn heaven, by living our life on earth, and trusting in his word that heaven will be our eternal home if we do our part here below.

In his brief answer to the Sadducees, Christ gives us the essential facts concerning our future status. First, he affirms that all those who have proved themselves worthy while in this life will rise to an eternal life. In that life we will become like angels. We will not be angels, pure spirits without bodies, but we will be like them in that our bodies will become "spiritual." They will lose all the restrictions and limitations imposed on them now, as mere material composites. They will no longer be subject to decline and decay as they now are. Therefore, they can never suffer from pain or sickness or weakness of any sort.

Second, he clearly affirmed that those risen from the dead are no longer liable to death. Leaving aside the other greater joys of heaven, such as the beatific vision, and the close association with Christ our Savior in his risen humanity, the meeting with our blessed Mother and with all the Saints, including our relatives and friends, what a source of happiness and joy will it be for us, to know that we can never die again! The happiness and joy which we shall have will never end. We all have had moments of happiness in this life. Great as these moments were, the thought that they had to end too soon cast a shadow on our joy. There will be no shadow to darken or lessen our future joy and happiness.

Many Christians, even good, pious Christians, fear death and try to keep the very thought of it far from their minds. This is very understandable for one who believes (if there is such a one) that death is the end. To a certain degree it is understandable in the case of the believer or the Christian, whose conscience is not at peace with God. That latter, however, has the means of removing his fears by removing his sins, and by putting himself right with God. The normal, pious Christian should see death as what it is, an end of his time of probation and the door to his eternal reward. It is not normal for a student to dread his graduation day. Death for the God-fearing, honest Christian is graduation day. Therefore, no Christian should be afraid of it.

Of course, part of the fears which death instils come from the fear of the judgment which accompanies it. If we think every now and then, that our death is around the comer, we will turn to the God of mercy, to our loving Father, and ask for his forgiveness. He never refuses pardon to those who with a sincere heart, ask for it.

Let each one of us look into his own conscience this morning. Let him ask himself, how he would fare if death should claim him tonight. If there are sins on my conscience, which I would not want there when facing my just Judge, I still have time to approach the merciful Father. The Christian who does this daily, or even weekly, will not worry when death calls. He can rest assured that it is the beginning of the true and everlasting life, planned for him by God before time began.

Vultus Christi

Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice

Sunday, 10 November 2013 10:21

Justice

What is this justice that is as necessary to our souls as food and drink are to our bodies? Why does Our Lord call blessed those who hunger and thirst after justice? Unfortunately, there are many who confuse justice with vengeance. There are many who see justice as a settling of accounts, or as the fruit of a revolution in society, or as a loss of power on one side and a increase of power on the other. There are those who see justice in terms of a pie divided and distributed to each one and to all in rigorously equal pieces. None of these notions correspond to the justice after which Jesus would have us hunger and thirst.

Readjustment to the Holiness of God

The justice of this beatitude is, rather, the fruit of a radical readjustment to the holiness of God; this readjustment is, essentially, the grace of reconciliation with God as He is and as He has revealed Himself. It is the grace of conversion to the glory of God that shines upon the Face of His Christ. “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Christ Jesus” (2 Corinthians 4:6). What is sin if not thoughts, words, and deeds that causes a soul to become maladjusted to the holiness of God? Sin is a state of maladjustment to the Divine Plan; it alienates man from the cause and source of his happiness, and castes him into a downward spiral of restlessness, fear, and vice.

Before Thee in the Sanctuary

Justice is the right relationship of all persons and things to the holiness of God. One who hungers and thirsts after holiness, hungers and thirsts after a real participation by grace in the holiness of God. This is the burning desire of the psalmist that we repeat so often in the Divine Office: “O God, my God, to thee do I watch at break of day. For thee my soul hath thirsted; for thee my flesh, O how many ways! In a desert land, and where there is no way, and no water: so in the sanctuary have I come before thee, to see thy power and thy glory” (Psalm 62:2–3).

Beholding the Glory of the Lord

There is in every human being a profound yearning for the readjustment of all that one is to the adorable will of the Thrice–Holy God. One who allows himself to be readjusted, by the secret inward action of the Holy Ghost, to the will of God, discovers the glory of the holiness of God and, through Christ, is transfigured into the glory of the holiness he contemplates. “But we all beholding the glory of the Lord with open face, are transformed into the same image” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

The Body and Blood of Christ

Adoration of Our Lord in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar is, at the deepest level, an expression of hunger and thirst for justice, of an abiding hunger and thirst for the Bread of life and for the Chalice of Salvation. One who perseveres in gazing upon the Sacred Host in adoration is, in effect, saying to Our Lord: “Adjust me, adjust a multitude of souls, to the glory of Thy holiness; do what Thou must to reconcile souls to that love stronger than death with which Thou has first loved us, and with which Thou hast loved us even to the end.” Jesus,”having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them unto the end” (John 13:1).

The World Adjusted to the Church

The prayer of adoration promotes justice because it is, in a hidden but real way, the adjustment of souls and of the world to the holiness of God revealed in Christ. Those who think that justice can be brought about by the adjustment of the Church to the world are tragically mistaken; it is not the Church that must adjust herself to the world, but the world to the Church, and this adjustment is not a human achievement, it is the work of grace in the souls of the little, the hidden, the poor, and those whom the world counts as nothing. “The foolish things of the world hath God chosen, that he may confound the wise; and the weak things of the world hath God chosen, that he may confound the strong. And the base things of the world, and the things that are contemptible, hath God chosen, and things that are not, that he might bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his sight. But of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and justice, and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:27–30).

In View of the Kingdom

Astonishingly, those who hunger and thirst after justice by persevering in adoration of the Hidden God, discover that their hunger and thirst is nothing in comparison to the hunger and thirst of God for souls abandoned to His divine operations. He desires nothing more than to adjust us, gently and mightily, to Himself, and this, in view of eternal life with Him in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Regnum Christi

The God of the Living Makes Us Truly Alive

| SPIRITUAL LIFE | SPIRITUALITY

Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Father Alex Yeung, LC

Luke 20: 27-38

Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him a question, "Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man´s brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; then the second and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. Finally the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her." Jesus said to them, "Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. Indeed they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive." Then some of the scribes answered, "Teacher, you have spoken well."

Introductory Prayer: I love you my Lord, because you are love itself. I am sorry for whatever is in me that does not come from your love and does not reflect your love. If I am to become what you want me to be, it will happen only if I allow you to act in me.

Petition: Lord Jesus Christ, help me to be a true child of the resurrection.

1. Our Shallows, His Depth: The encounter in this Gospel passage is somewhat embarrassing to read. It reminds us of so many similar occurrences in which we see shallowness trying to sound deep, but achieving little more than bothersome clatter. We’ve all heard rock stars who take themselves for prophets, or media people who handle issues of the Church, natural law, and other sublime truths without really knowing what they’re talking about. They just can’t see things outside of their pre-conceived notions. Their words grate on our ears and make us cringe. Something similar happens here. The Sadducees confront our Lord on their own terms and with their own agenda, armed with what they believe to be clever wit. Precisely such shallowness is the occasion to reveal God’s depths.

2. Christ More Than Satisfies: Our embarrassment for the Sadducees turns to admiration for Christ. Christ knew full well what was in the hearts of those men, and he patiently explained to them where their thinking failed. The man’s specious reasoning was given an answer that went far beyond the realm of theory. As the Sadducees’ superficiality is revealed, we get a glimpse of God’s mercy. These men were humbled, not humiliated. They were not rejected for being wrong; but were invited to go deeper in the truth. When we allow the Word of God to penetrate our hearts, it opens entirely new vistas and takes us out of the comfortable, predictable world of our own pre-conceived notions. However, for this to happen we need to be open to it. Once the Word of God finds a crevice, it will work its way in and bring new light into our previously darkened hearts.

3. We Are Children of the Resurrection: St. Paul says that whereas Christ is risen, he “has raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6). This is what the Sadducees had to learn and what we must still learn: to know our true place as “children of the resurrection” who are also members of Christ and inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven. We are raised again and again, yet frequently we are unaware of it. God’s word might enter our ears, but it may take a lifetime for its truth finally to sink into our hearts and penetrate every aspect of our lives. We are like people waking from sleep, unable to collect their thoughts quickly. Little by little the truth breaks in upon us and reality comes into focus. Christ’s truth surprises, reveals and invites.

Conversation with Christ: Lord Jesus Christ, suddenly I see that I am more like the Sadducees than I had previously thought. Help me to have an open heart, alert to your will and a readiness to adapt to it. Forgive me my rationalism and small-mindedness. I trust in you.

Resolution: I will strive to see others as children of the resurrection.

Scripture Speaks: Life After Death

by Gayle Somers on November 8, 2013 ·

Today, Jesus meets some Sadducees who try to trip Him up with a Bible question. Does it work?

Gospel (Read Lk 20:27-38)

St. Luke describes for us an encounter Jesus had with a group of Sadducees, and we need to understand who they were in order to best appreciate it. The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible (pg 89) says:

“The Sadducees emerged as a political and religious interest group around the second century B.C. Their name is derived from the high priest Zadok, who served under King Solomon (1 Kings 2:35) and whose descendants were granted exclusive rights to minister in Jerusalem (Ezek 40:46). In Jesus’ day, it was likely that many Sadducees were wealthy and held important positions in the Holy City. As a group, they were opposed to the Pharisees, because they sought to maintain the status quo with Rome. They believed that living peaceably with the governing Romans was the best way for Judaism to successfully weather the storm of foreign rule. Even more distinctive of the Sadducees were their doctrinal beliefs, or, more accurately, their unbeliefs. They opposed every doctrine not explicitly taught in the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. Therefore, they expressly denied: (1) an afterlife with rewards and punishments for the righteous and wicked (2) the immortality of the soul (3) the resurrection of the body and (4) the existence of angels or spirits (see Acts 23:6-8).”

When we know this background, we can see that the question the Sadducees put to Jesus was an attempt to trap Him in a contradiction of Moses, the author of the Pentateuch. If there were such a thing as resurrection, they proposed, there would be terrible confusion over whose wife the childless woman, instructed by Mosaic law to marry the brothers of her dead husbands, would be. What mistake were the Sadducees making? Because they were certain that Moses did not explicitly teach about the afterlife, they were confident it did not exist. They hoped to expose the awkwardness and sheer irrationality of the doctrine of resurrection if Jesus tried to answer their question.

The tables were turned on them, however, in Jesus’ masterful answer. First, He acknowledges an afterlife in which righteousness is rewarded (“those deemed worthy to attain the coming age”). Then, He suggests that Moses’ law was intended only for this earthly life; its silence about the afterlife did not negate its existence. Jesus came to us from Heaven expressly to reveal and confirm what was only hinted at in the Old Testament. The new information He gives about marriage is that it is for this life only, not the afterlife. Jesus makes clear that the soul is immortal, because in the resurrection, men “can no longer die.” He also confirms the existence of angels, saying that those who rise will be like immortal angels. Finally, Jesus insists that evidence for the afterlife is given indirectly even by Moses himself. When he wrote about his experience at the burning bush, he reports that God described Himself as “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.” God’s identification with men who had been dead hundreds of years means that “He is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to Him all are alive.”

In one breathtaking sweep, Jesus overturns all the Sadducees’ doctrinal objections. With wonderful clarity, He gives us a window into the life of the world to come—a world in which death has been conquered and life never ends. A trap turns into a remarkably beautiful teaching from Jesus. Isn’t that just like Him?

Possible response: Lord Jesus, thank You for making the impossible—life beyond death—possible.

First Reading (Read 2 Mac 7:1-2, 9-14)

Here we have another reading about seven brothers, although these men were not all marrying the same woman. They were facing martyrdom for refusing to violate the Jewish prohibition against eating pork being pressed on them by the pagan king who ruled over Judah at that time. The brothers were “ready to die rather than transgress the laws” of their ancestors. Where did they get such courage?

We can see that these men had a rock-like confidence in the afterlife, where “the King of the world will raise us up to live again forever.” They understood that they had received their bodies (and all their body parts) “from Heaven,” and they were willing to let them go in the “hope to receive them again.” Their anticipation of the resurrection gave them courage that “even the king and his attendants” marveled over; it enabled them to regard their “sufferings as nothing.”

When the fourth brother was near death, he confessed his belief that his steadfastness in faith would be rewarded by God, but he warned his persecutors that “for you, there will be no resurrection to life.” We can see here many of the beliefs about the afterlife that were taken up in Jesus’ response to the Sadducees in our Gospel. A doctrine of personal, bodily resurrection after a life of faithfulness was slow to develop for the Jews, but by the time of the Maccabees, several hundred years before Jesus appeared, it was well established. Jesus thought the Sadducees should have taken their cue from Moses at the burning bush, which happened about 1500 years before Jesus. To know this life is not an end in itself but a preparation for the life to come means that we will, paradoxically, live this life much better, no matter what we face, even martyrdom.

Possible response: Lord Jesus, help me make decisions in this life with the confidence these brothers had that life here isn’t an end in itself.

Psalm (Read Ps 17:1, 5-6, 8, 15)

Keeping in mind the theme of our readings thus far—life in God’s presence after death as reward for righteousness—we will find this psalm quite fitting. The psalmist asks God to hear him, a man who prays “from lips without deceit.” He keeps his steps “steadfast” in God’s paths and calls out for God to hear him. He makes a remarkable request of God, one that could only come from a relationship of tender love and confidence: “Keep me as the apple of Your eye, hide me in the shadow of Your wings.” Have we ever prayed this way? The psalmist believes that “on waking I shall be content in Your presence.” We, too, believe that when we awake from the sleep of death in the resurrection, we shall behold God’s face. We are waiting for that day; in anticipation, meanwhile, we can sing: “Lord, when Your glory appears, my joy will be full.”

Possible response: The psalm is, itself, a response to our other readings. Read it again prayerfully to make it your own.

Second Reading (Read 2 Thess 2:16-3:5)

If we are thinking now about the resurrection as a reward for those who are “deemed worthy” of it, as Jesus says in the Gospel, we might start to get nervous. We know ourselves; we know that we have faltered and failed, been fickle and indifferent, have not always zealously pursued righteousness. What about us?

This portion of St. Paul’s letter to his Christian friends helps us see that through our faith in Jesus—our willingness to believe He died and rose for our sins, which is what St. Paul preached and the Thessalonians believed—we can become truly righteous, through God’s grace. None of us gain heaven by being good enough. That is why Jesus is called our Savior. Through our faith in Him, says St. Paul, “the Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, Who has loved us and given us everlasting encouragement and good hope through His grace,” is the One Who encourages our hearts and strengthens them “in every good deed and word.” We are not left to ourselves to live a life worthy of heaven. As St. Paul says elsewhere, God is at work in us, “both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (see Phil 2:13). We can see this gracious reality woven through St. Paul’s words to the Thessalonians. He asks them to pray for him, especially for protection from wicked people; he knows God will do this because “the Lord is faithful.” He strengthens and guards His people “from the evil one.” All the emphasis in these verses is on God’s great work in His children to enable them to live worthy of His calling: “May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the endurance of Christ.”

We can hope for our own resurrection when we put all our hope in Jesus and doing what the Lord instructs us to do. He will bring us safely home.

Possible response: Heavenly Father, I thank You that my confidence in life after death comes from Your great love for me and the promise of Your help to attain it.

Will there be Marriage in the Afterlife?

by Marcellino D'Ambrosio, Ph.D. on November 8, 2013 ·

Given their history, it seems rather strange. After all, for hundreds of years the Jews lived alongside a race that was totally preoccupied with life after death. The Egyptians built pyramids that were wonders of the ancient world. But their sole purpose was to launch their leaders into the next world.

Yet the Hebrews really had no concept of life after death. True, they believed in Sheol (aka Hades) but the shadowy, underworld existence of departed souls could not properly be called “life.” For the Jews, unlike the Greeks and Egyptians, the soul really could not have true existence apart from the body. A human being, in their understanding, did not just have a body. It was not just a vehicle that the soul drove around town. No, the body is an essential part of the person. The body is the person.

So finally, when about 150 years before Christ a group of pious Jews called Pharisees came to believe in life after death, they instinctively knew that the body had to be involved. Salvation was not about being liberated from the body to enjoy bliss as angelic souls, but rather had to mean the resurrection of the body.

The religious establishment of Judaism never bought into this. To this day, most Jews don’t have a definite belief in life after death. In Jesus’ time, the conservatives, which included the priests, were called the Sadducees. In Luke 20: 27-38 a group of them present to Jesus a scenario designed to discredit this silly belief in the resurrection. In this world, death of a spouse frees a woman to marry another. What if she is made a widow six times and marries a seventh. In the resurrection, all will be alive at the same time–who’s wife will she be?

As they snicker, the Lord Jesus exposes the problem. They assume the resurrection will be a mere resuscitation, a return to bodily life as we currently experience it. But Jesus points out our risen bodies will be different that they are now. Our bodies now are mortal, vulnerable, actually rather fragile. A lifetime of great nutrition and disciplined exercise can be instantaneously ruined by a sudden rendezvous with an 18-wheeler.

In the resurrection, we’ll become like the angels in this way–our bodies will no longer be mortal or vulnerable. I don’t know about you, but for me, that will make quite a difference in my lifestyle and daily routine. Marriage is a love relationship for sure. But it is also an institution that is bound up with realities of mortal life. Reproduction is necessary because we someday will die and so need to raise up replacements to carry on. In heaven, we won’t need to worry about the survival of the species or the family name. Paying the bills and balancing the budget is a big part of the institution of marriage and family as we know them. But the bills we work so hard to pay each month just won’t be an issue in the hereafter. Medical insurance is no use when you are immortal.

But there are some things about marriage that will last forever. Marriage points beyond itself to eternal realities. God is an intimate and loving communion of persons. We are made in the image of this triune God which means that we are made for self-giving love. Marriage is a realization of this vocation as well as a symbol of an even greater love relationship–the marriage between God and His people, Christ and His Church.

So there are things about this life, and about marriage, that will last forever. But there are also things that will pass away. The resurrection will be not just more of the same, but a transformation of life, a launching into a new realm of life, a life of eternal love of God and one another that will be more exciting than we can possibly imagine.

One Bread One Body

One Bread, One Body

Language: English | Español

All Issues > Volume 29, Issue 6

<< Sunday, November 10, 2013 >>

32nd Sunday Ordinary Time

2 Maccabees 7:1-2, 9-14
2 Thessalonians 2:16—3:5
View Readings

Psalm 17:1, 5-6, 8, 15
Luke 20:27-38
Similar Reflections

"A HAPPY DEATH"

"It also happened that seven brothers with their mother were arrested and tortured with whips and scourges by the king." —2 Maccabees 7:1

Seven brothers were arrested, tortured, scourged, and killed because they would not compromise their faith (2 Mc 7:1ff). These heroic deaths have inspired and transformed the lives of many for centuries.

We are all going to die, unless Jesus comes back first. The question is not: "Will I die?" but "How will I die?" Will my death be a mere statistic? Or will I glorify God by my manner of death? (Jn 21:19)

Most people think a happy death means dying at an old age and with no pain. God's word says a happy death has nothing to do with age or pain but it has everything to do with love, even to death on the cross (Phil 2:8). "The way we came to understand love was that He laid down His life for us; we too must lay down our lives for our brothers" and sisters (1 Jn 3:16).

"Happy now are the dead who die in the Lord!" (Rv 14:13)

Prayer: "May our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, may God our Father Who loved us and in His mercy gave us eternal consolation and hope, console your hearts and strengthen them for every good work and word" (2 Thes 2:16-17).

Promise: "It is my choice to die at the hands of men with the God-given hope of being restored to life by Him." —2 Mc 7:14

Praise: Praise You, risen King Jesus, enthroned in majesty and glory! I lift up my hands, heart, and voice to praise You today.

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