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.
