2019년 11월 10일 연중 제32주일
오늘의 복음 : http://info.catholic.or.kr/missa/default.asp
제1독서
마카베오기 하. 7,1-2.9-14
그 무렵 1 어떤 일곱 형제가 어머니와 함께 체포되어 채찍과 가죽 끈으로 고초를 당하며, 법으로 금지된 돼지고기를 먹으라는 강요를 임금에게서 받은 일이 있었다.
2 그들 가운데 하나가 대변자가 되어 이렇게 말하였다. “우리를 심문하여 무엇을 알아내려 하시오? 우리는 조상들의 법을 어기느니 차라리 죽을 각오가 되어 있소.”
둘째는 9 마지막 숨을 거두며 말하였다. “이 사악한 인간, 당신은 우리를 이승에서 몰아내지만, 온 세상의 임금님께서는 당신의 법을 위하여 죽은 우리를 일으키시어 영원한 생명을 누리게 하실 것이오.”
10 그 다음에는 셋째가 조롱을 당하였다. 그는 혀를 내밀라는 말을 듣자 바로 혀를 내밀고, 손까지 용감하게 내뻗으며, 11 고결하게 말하였다. “이 지체들을 하늘에서 받았지만, 그분의 법을 위해서라면 나는 이것들까지도 하찮게 여기오. 그러나 그분에게서 다시 받으리라고 희망하오.” 12 그러자 임금은 물론 그와 함께 있던 자들까지, 고통을 아무것도 아닌 것으로 여기는 그 젊은이의 기개에 놀랐다.
13 셋째가 죽은 다음에, 그들은 넷째도 같은 식으로 괴롭히며 고문하였다. 14 그는 죽는 순간이 되자 이렇게 말하였다. “하느님께서 다시 일으켜 주시리라는 희망을 간직하고, 사람들의 손에 죽는 것이 더 낫소. 그러나 당신은 부활하여 생명을 누릴 가망이 없소.”
제2독서
테살로니카 2서.2,16ㅡ3,5
형 제 여러분, 16 우리 주 예수 그리스도께서 친히, 또 우리를 사랑하시고 당신의 은총으로 영원한 격려와 좋은 희망을 주신 하느님 우리 아버지께서, 17 여러분의 마음을 격려하시고, 여러분의 힘을 북돋우시어, 온갖 좋은 일과 좋은 말을 하게 해 주시기를 빕니다.
3,1 끝으로, 형제 여러분, 우리를 위하여 기도해 주십시오. 주님의 말씀이 여러분에게서처럼 빠르게 퍼져 나가 찬양을 받고, 2 우리가 고약하고 악한 사람들에게서 구출되도록 기도해 주십시오. 모든 사람이 믿음을 가지고 있지는 않기 때문입니다. 3 주님은 성실하신 분이시므로, 여러분의 힘을 북돋우시고, 여러분을 악에서 지켜 주실 것입니다.
4 우리는 주님 안에서 여러분을 신뢰합니다. 우리가 지시하는 것들을 여러분이 실행하고 있고, 앞으로도 실행하리라고 믿습니다. 5 주님께서 여러분의 마음을 이끄시어, 하느님의 사랑과 그리스도의 인내에 이르게 해 주시기를 빕니다.
복음
루카. 20,27-38<또는 20,27.34-38>
짧은 독서를 할 때에는 < > 부분을 생략한다.
그때에 27 부활이 없다고 주장하는 사두가이 몇 사람이 예수님께 다가와 물었다.
<28 “스승님, 모세는 ‘어떤 사람의 형제가 자식 없이’ 아내를 남기고 ‘죽으면, 그 사람이 죽은 이의 아내를 맞아들여 형제의 후사를 일으켜 주어야 한다.’고 저희를 위하여 기록해 놓았습니다.
29 그런데 일곱 형제가 있었습니다. 맏이가 아내를 맞아들였는데, 자식 없이 죽었습니다. 30 그래서 둘째가, 31 그다음에는 셋째가 그 여자를 맞아들였습니다. 그렇게 일곱이 모두 자식을 남기지 못하고 죽었습니다. 32 마침내 그 부인도 죽었습니다.
33 그러면 부활 때에 그 여자는 그들 가운데 누구의 아내가 되겠습니까? 일곱이 다 그 여자를 아내로 맞아들였으니 말입니다.”>
34 예수님께서 그들에게 이르셨다. “이 세상 사람들은 장가도 들고 시집도 간다. 35 그러나 저세상에 참여하고 또 죽은 이들의 부활에 참여할 자격이 있다고 판단받는 이들은 더 이상 장가드는 일도, 시집가는 일도 없을 것이다.
36 천사들과 같아져서 더 이상 죽는 일도 없다. 그들은 또한 부활에 동참하여 하느님의 자녀가 된다.
37 그리고 죽은 이들이 되살아난다는 사실은, 모세도 떨기나무 대목에서 ‘주님은 아브라함의 하느님, 이사악의 하느님, 야곱의 하느님’이라는 말로 이미 밝혀 주었다. 38 그분은 죽은 이들의 하느님이 아니라, 산 이들의 하느님이시다. 사실 하느님께는 모든 사람이 살아 있는 것이다.”
November 10, 2019
Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Daily Mass : http://www.catholictv.com/shows/daily-mass
Reading 1
It happened that seven brothers with their mother were arrested
and tortured with whips and scourges by the king,
to force them to eat pork in violation of God's law.
One of the brothers, speaking for the others, said:
"What do you expect to achieve by questioning us?
We are ready to die rather than transgress the laws of our ancestors."
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."
Responsorial Psalm
R. (15b) Lord, when your glory appears, my joy will be full.
Hear, O LORD, a just suit;
attend to my outcry;
hearken to my prayer from lips without deceit.
R. Lord, when your glory appears, my joy will be full.
My steps have been steadfast in your paths,
my feet have not faltered.
I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God;
incline your ear to me; hear my word.
R. Lord, when your glory appears, my joy will be full.
Keep me as the apple of your eye,
hide me in the shadow of your wings.
But I in justice shall behold your face;
on waking I shall be content in your presence.
R. Lord, when your glory appears, my joy will be full.
Reading 2
Brothers and sisters:
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.
Gospel
Lk 20:27-38 or Lk 20:27, 34-38
Some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection,
came forward and put this question to Jesus, saying,
"Teacher, Moses wrote for us,
If someone's brother dies leaving a wife but no child,
his brother must take the wife
and raise up descendants for his brother.
Now there were seven brothers;
the first married a woman but died childless.
Then the second and the third married her,
and likewise all the seven died childless.
Finally the woman also died.
Now at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be?
For all seven had been married to her."
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."
http://evangeli.net/gospel/tomorrow
«He is God of the living and not of the dead, and for him all are alive»
Fr. Ramon SÀRRIAS i Ribalta
(Andorra la Vella, Andorra)
Today, Jesus makes it clear his claim about resurrection and eternal life. Sadducees doubted, or even worse, they ridiculed the belief in eternal life after death, which was defended —instead— by the Pharisees and we also defend it.
The question the Sadducees asked to Jesus «On the day of the resurrection, to which of them will the woman be wife? For the seven had her as wife?» (Lk 20:33) let us catch sight of a possessive sort of juridical mindset, demanding proprietary rights over a person. Furthermore, the trap set up for Jesus raises an equivocal still existing today: imagining eternal life as an extension, after death, of the earthen existence. Heaven would, thus, consist of the transposition of the beautiful things we now enjoy.
To believe in eternal life is one thing, but to imagine what it will be like is another thing altogether different. When a mystery is not surrounded by respect and discretion, it risks being trivialized by curiosity and, finally, ridiculed.
Jesus' answer has two parts. In the first one, He tries to make clear that the marriage institution has no reason to be in the other life: «those who are considered worthy of the world to come and of resurrection from the dead, there is no more marriage» (Lk 20:35). What does persists and reaches its maximum fullness is whatever we have sowed in this world as far as authentic love, friendship, fraternity, justice and truth... are concerned.
The second part of the answer leaves two certitudes with us: «For he is God of the living and not of the dead» (Lk 20:38). To trust in this God means to realize we are meant to be alive. And being alive consists of being with Him in a continuous manner, forever. Furthermore, «and for him all are alive» (Lk 20:38): God is the source of life. The believer, submerged in God through the Baptism, has been able to escape forever from the clutches of death. «Love becomes an accomplished fact, if it is included in a love that truly provides eternity» (Benedict XVI).
http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html
Several weeks ago when a dear friend was visiting we decided to see an exhibit of the St. Johns Bible, the first handwritten and illuminated Bible commissioned by a Benedictine Abbey since the invention of the printing press. I was somewhat familiar with this treasure as Creighton has a heritage copy that is used a special liturgies. Yet, spending the time in the exhibit was very engaging visually, intellectually and most important spiritually. I learned that in the early days of the 15 year long project the artists would read scripture in the Lectio Divina way which creates the opportunity to promote communion with God and to increase the knowledge of God’s word. The inspired illustrations were the results of that contemplative, communal prayer.
Today I decided to give myself some space and time to spend with the readings in the tradition of Lectio Divina. I understand the four phases to be reading, mediation, contemplation and prayer. A slow and careful reading of the text several times is important and a good reminder for me to slow down. As a person who spends a lot of time in her head, I challenged myself to pay attention to my feelings and reactions to the readings.
The theme of death and resurrection emerge for me from today’s readings. The first reading from Maccabees tells of seven brothers and their mother who are arrested and tortured for their faith in God. Today’s second reading from Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians calls for us to be delivered from perverse and wicked people for not all have faith. And the Gospel reading from Luke focuses on the Sadducees who deny there is a resurrection.
Initially my prayer felt empty with all of the gloom and doom. But as I spent more time with the text I became open to the messages of faith and resurrection. Several phrases resonate with me. One of brothers being tortured expresses his abiding faith by exclaiming: The King of the world will raise us up to live again forever. Paul reminds us that we may be delivered from perverse and wicked people… as the Lord will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one. The gospel today concludes with these powerful words: he is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him we are all alive.
As I contemplate these readings about death and resurrection I ask God to help deepen my understanding. I ask for imagery to come closer to God through the living word. I look out the window and see the mystery of autumn. The vibrant leaves are falling to the ground leaving barren tree branches. My pretty flower garden is a tangle of dead plants. The wind is cold. Yet I can totally trust that these trees, plants and flowers will bloom again in the spring. This becomes an ever-present metaphor for death and resurrection grounded in God’s love.
I pray to God to help me see beauty where it is not immediately evident. I pray that I am open to the artistry in any form of others living their faith. The Psalm reminds me: I in justice shall behold your face; on waking I shall be content in your presence.
http://www.presentationministries.com/obob/obob.asp
FAMILY PRAYER | ||
| "It also happened that seven brothers with their mother were arrested and tortured with whips and scourges by the king." �2 Maccabees 7:1 | ||
This nameless Old Testament family prefigures the Christian family. How holy, fearless, and faithful a Christian family can be when united with the Lord and one another and deeply grounded in faith in Jesus' Resurrection and our resurrection from the dead! This family loved God and each other so much that all seven brothers with their mother suffered mutilation, torture, and execution so as to be faithful to the Lord. This was a family of eight saints, all martyred. In the new covenant, we have even greater graces to have the holiest families. "That is why I kneel before the Father from Whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name; and I pray that He will bestow on you gifts in keeping with the riches of His glory" (Eph 3:14-16). "May He strengthen you inwardly through the working of His Spirit" (Eph 3:16). "May Christ dwell in your hearts through faith" (Eph 3:17). "May charity be the root and foundation of your life. Thus you will be able to grasp fully, with all the holy ones, the breadth and length and height and depth of Christ's love" (Eph 3:17-18). Because the Lord has revealed this family prayer to us, He will certainly answer it. By His grace, your family can enter into unimaginable realms of holiness and ultimately have a family reunion in heaven without any member missing. Through daily recitation of the above family prayer, accept the grace to be a holy family. | ||
| Prayer: Lord, direct our "hearts in the love of God and the constancy of Christ" (2 Thes 3:5). | ||
| Promise: "The Lord keeps faith; He it is Who will strengthen you and guard you against the evil one." —2 Thes 3:3 | ||
| Praise: "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches, wisdom and strength, honor and glory and praise" (Rv 5:12). |
http://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/readings/
"All live to him"
Is your life earth-bound or heaven-bound? The Sadducees had one big problem - they could not conceive of heaven beyond what they could see with their naked eyes! Aren't we often like them? We don't recognize spiritual realities because we try to make heaven into an earthly image. The Sadducees came to Jesus with a test question to make the resurrection look ridiculous. The Sadducees, unlike the Pharisees, did not believe in immortality, nor in angels or evil spirits. Their religion was literally grounded in an earthly image of heaven.
The Scriptures give witness - we will rise again to immortal life
Jesus retorts by dealing with the fact of the resurrection. The Scriptures give proof of it. In Exodus 3:6, when God manifests his presence to Moses in the burning bush, the Lord tells him that he is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He shows that the patriarchs who died hundreds of years previously were still alive in God. Jesus defeats their arguments by showing that God is a living God of a living people. God was the friend of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob when they lived. That friendship could not cease with death. As Psalm 73:23-24 states: "I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory."
The ultimate proof of the resurrection is the Lord Jesus and his victory over death when he rose from the tomb. Before Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, he exclaimed: "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?" (John 11:25). Jesus asks us the same question. Do you believe in the resurrection and in the promise of eternal life with God?
Jesus came to restore Paradise and everlasting life for us
The Holy Spirit reveals to us the eternal truths of God's enduring love and the abundant life he desires to share with us for all eternity. Paul the Apostle, quoting from the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 64:4; 65:17) states: "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him," God has revealed to us through the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:9-10). The promise of Paradise - heavenly bliss and unending life with an all-loving God - is beyond human reckoning. We have only begun to taste the first-fruits! Do you live now in the joy and hope of the life of the age to come?
"May the Lord Jesus put his hands on our eyes also, for then we too shall begin to look not at what is seen but at what is not seen. May he open the eyes that are concerned not with the present but with what is yet to come, may he unseal the heart's vision, that we may gaze on God in the Spirit, through the same Lord, Jesus Christ, whose glory and power will endure throughout the unending succession of ages." (Prayer of Origen, 185-254 AD)
Psalm 17:1,6-9,15
1 Hear a just cause, O LORD; attend to my cry! Give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit!
6 I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God; incline your ear to me, hear my words.
7 Wondrously show your mercies, O savior of those who seek refuge from their adversaries at your right hand.
8 Keep me as the apple of the eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings,
9 from the wicked who despoil me, my deadly enemies who surround me.
15 As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with beholding your form.
Daily Quote from the early church fathers: Jesus cites Moses to affirm the resurrection, by Cyril of Alexandria (376-444 AD)
"The Savior also demonstrated the great ignorance of the Sadducees by bringing forward their own leader Moses, who was clearly acquainted with the resurrection of the dead. He set God before us saying in the bush, 'I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob' (Exodus 3:6). Of whom is he God, if, according to their argument, these have ceased to live? He is the God of the living. They certainly will rise when his almighty right hand brings them and all that are on the earth there. For people not to believe that this will happen is worthy perhaps of the ignorance of the Sadducees, but it is altogether unworthy of those who love Christ. We believe in him who says, 'I am the resurrection and the life' (John 11:25). He will raise the dead suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye, and at the last trumpet. It shall sound, the dead in Christ shall rise incorruptible, and we shall be changed (1 Corinthians 15:52). For Christ our common Savior will transfer us into incorruption, glory and to an incorruptible life." (excerpt from COMMENTARY on LUKE, HOMILY 136)
http://www.homilies.net/
32 Ordinary Time
2 Maccabees 7:1-2,9-14; Psalm 17:1,5-6,8,15; 2 Thessalonians 2:16-3:5; St.
Luke 20:27-38
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
The Sadducees, holding no belief in the resurrection of the dead, wish to trap Christ.
"...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 a wife." (Lk 20:29-33)
Christ not only reaffirms his teaching on the resurrection of the dead, but he deepens our understanding of the marriage vocation as well. "...those who are accounted worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection of the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die any more." (Lk 20:35)
Marriage is an earthly vocation. In heaven where God will be "all in all", man and woman will find complete fulfillment in divine Love. There each will behold God face to face. The life-long covenant for mutual and sincere gift of self in marriage is for husband and wife a prelude to and help toward the eternal happiness of heaven.
In this world man and wife become one flesh in their life-long covenant, and may, if God so bless them, be fruitful in their openness to new life.
"Conjugal love involves a totality, in which all the elements of the person enter - appeal of the body and instinct, power of feeling and affectivity, aspiration of the spirit and of will. It aims at a deeply personal unity, a unity that, beyond union in one flesh, leads to forming one heart and soul; it demands indissolubility and faithfulness in definitive mutual giving; and it is open to fertility. In a word it is a question of the normal characteristics of all natural conjugal love, but with a new significance which not only purifies and strengthens them, but raises them to the extent of making them the ｅxpression of specifically Christian values." (Familiaris consortio 13) (CCC 1643)
The love of the spouses requires, of its very nature, the unity and indissolubility of the spouses' community of persons, which embraces their entire life: "so they are no longer two, but one flesh." (Mt 19:6; cf. Gen 2:24.) They "are called to grow continually in their communion through day-to-day fidelity to their marriage promise of total mutual self-giving." (Familiaris consortio 19.) This human communion is confirmed, purified, and completed by communion in Jesus Christ, given through the sarament of Matrimony. It is deepened by lives of the common faith and by the Eucharist received together. (CCC 1644)
Marriage is a total gift, and so it is "until death". Man and wife make for each other of themselves a total and sincere gift of self. Christ demands this total fidelity of spouses when he proscribes divorce.
By its very nature conjugal love requires the inviolable fidelity of the spouses. This is the consequence of the gift of themselves which they make to each other. Love seeks to be definitive; it cannot be an arrangement "until further notice." The "intimate union of marriage, as a mutual giving of two persons , and the good of the children, demand total fidelity from the spouses and require and unbreakable union between them." (Gaudium et spes, 48, art. 1.) (CCC 1646)
Let's pray for each other until, again next week, we "meet Christ in the liturgy",
Father Cusick
(See also Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph numbers 1601 to 1666.) Publish with permission. http://www.christusrex.org/www1/mcitl/
Frjoeshomilies.net
32 Ordinary Time
Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time: Do Not Be Afraid!!
The first reading for this Sunday is intense. It describes the suffering of some of the martyrs at the time of the Maccabees. A little explanation is necessary. The story really begins with the conquests of Alexander the Great about 330 years before Christ. Not only did Alexander conquer the military of the nations of the world, he conquered the culture of the nations. Greek philosophy, Greek art, Greek religion, all things Greek became the new way of the world. Parts of the world adapted quickly to this. Parts of the world adapted gradually. Most of the known world was Hellenized, became Greek, though. That is with the exception of the Hebrews. The Jews held on to their faith and life.
Now when Alexander died, his empire was divided up among twelve counselor/generals. The Jews were in that part of the empire governed by the Seleucid dynasty. This became one of the largest of the Greek kingdoms. It extended all the way to India, Persia, Turkey, as well as Syria, Lebanon and Palestine. Perhaps, the empire was so large that the Jews were left alone, at least until about 165 BC. A new King, Antioches Epiphanes decided that everyone in his domains should worship the Greek gods and follow Greek practices. In Palestine many of the Jews were ecstatic. They were tired of being left out of what they called modern society. They wanted to be Greek, part of the mesh of the Hellenistic culture. They built gymnasiums where they would exercise in the rather immodest Greek style. This was very much against the Law of Moses. The men even covered over the distinct male marking of their faith. They rejected the Law of God. They were now modern men and women. They built Greek temples, worshiped Greek gods, dressed and acted like Greeks. Basically, they became Greeks in Jewish bodies. Antioches had a statue of the Greek god Zeus put right on the altar in the Holy of Holies in the Temple in Jerusalem. Right there, in the holiest part of the Temple where a chosen priest would only enter once a year, right there on the most sacred altar of Israel, Antioches put a statue of a pagan god.
But there were faithful Jews who were appalled. They would refer to the statue of Zeus as the abominable desecration. They refused to give in to the emperor's decrees. Antioches then issued a proclamation that anyone who kept the Jewish practices and did not worship the Greek gods would be tortured and put to death. In our first reading from the Second Book of Maccabees we hear about these sufferings. It is a grisly account. It is also accurate. Second Maccabees became one of the favorite books of the early Christians. They would choose Christ and his Kingdom rather than give in to the so-called modern yet pagan world of the Roman empire. Like the Jews in Maccabees they also would choose to suffer rather than reject Christianity. And they did suffer. No pain, no fear, not even death could dissuade Peter and Paul, and all the apostles, who were killed, some, like Bartholomew in horrible ways. From that old man, Ignatius of Antioch, to the 12 year old girl, Agnes, to those two new mothers, Perpetua and Felicity, and all the martyrs, from the earliest days of the Church to those dying now for the faith under the persecution of radical Islam and other agents of the devil, witnesses, martyrs, continue to choose Christ over death.
So what does this have to do with us? Unless the United States is conquered by a brutal people determined to persecute and kill all who do not renounce their faith, we are not going to be put in the position of the Hebrew and Christian martyrs. We will not have to make a choice between our faith or torture. But we will still be persecuted. We are persecuted now. People continue to belittle our faith and Christian lifestyle. People mock us for exalting in our Catholicism. They did this to Jesus, too. Look at the Gospel reading for today. Jesus was belittled for preaching that there is life after death. The Sadducees made fun of Jesus. "So, there is life after death, huh? Well, how could that be? What if a woman had seven husbands, and they all died before her. Whose wife would she be when she died? So there, we're a lot smarted than you Jesus. We've got you backed into a corner." Jesus very nicely responded, in our words, "You guys are clueless. You have no idea what the afterlife is like, the spiritual, heaven."
Perhaps the Sadducees' method of argument sound familiar. There are many who belittle people rather than consider if there is any truth to their beliefs. Most of us have experienced this when we profess our faith. Someone says to us "So, you believe in the Trinity, prove it. So you believe in the spiritual, prove it. Tear a body to pieces and see if you can find the soul. Your Catholicism, your Christianity, is just child's stories."
Jesus did not back down. He would also suffer being scorned by others for his faith. He would be crucified for his faith.
We cannot back down either. Because so many around us do not respect our faith, or respect us as Christians or as Catholics, we are often called to put up with their scorn for the sake of the faith.
So, you sit down at lunch with work companions or schoolmates, and someone says to you, "You don't really believe all the Catholic garbage do you? I mean, you can't really believe that the bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ?" Or maybe they come up with the anti-Catholic bigotry of the last century, "You Catholics worship Mary. You have statues in your churches. Aren't you are really a bunch of idolaters." Or maybe they lay into our morality, "You don't really believe that you have to put others before yourselves, do you? Get real, will you. That's not how the world works. You don't really believe that the physical ｅxpression of love belongs only in marriage, do you?" and so forth. It takes a lot of courage for us to say, "This is my faith. I am completely convinced. I don't ask you to believe my faith, just to respect me for having it."
That statement will most likely be followed by one of two things: silence or more scorn. And right here we have the great fear that confronts us. Our great fear is not torture or death. Our great fear is that we won't fit in, that people won't accept us, that people won't like us because of our faith. Look, we have been and will be belittled for our faith. We are being mocked right now for our faith. The mockery of the world fits the pattern of its immorality. The early Christians were told to be in the world but not of the word. That applies to us too. We are not of the world. We have chosen to be holy. Holiness means to be set aside, separate for God. We have chosen to be different from those elements of our society that exalt in what is basically a pagan lifestyle. These people can't stand our holiness. Evil will always attack good. In fact, when we are attacked for what we believe or how we live our Christianity, then we know that we are doing something very right, we are giving witness to the Kingdom. But we are afraid. We are afraid that we are not fitting in. We fear not being accepted even though we freely choose Christ.
St. Paul was aware of this. It is as though he speaks directly to each of us in today's second reading from the Second Letter to the Thessalonians. "Pray that you might be delivered from perverse and wicked people. For not all have faith. Be faithful to the Lord and the Lord will be faithful to you. He will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one." Paul's prayer, and our prayer is "May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and the endurance of Christ."
St. John Paul the Great told us from the very beginning of his papacy, "Do not be afraid." We cannot be afraid of what others are thinking about us. We cannot be afraid of what others might say about us. We cannot be afraid of what others might do to us. Our only fear should be the fear that we cave into the world, reject Christ, or in any way push Him aside.
With St. Paul, we pray, "May the Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God the Father who loves us and gives us everlasting encouragement and hope, fortify our hearts and strengthen us."
Stmaryvalleybloom.org
* Available in Spanish - see Spanish Homilies
32 Ordinary Time
Alexmcallister.co.uk
32 Ordinary Time
Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
The Sadducees could not have put a trickier question to Jesus than this one about the widow with seven husbands. While it is a hypothetical story it is also quite an outlandish one since after two or three of the brothers marrying this woman in order to 'raise up children for their brother' it must have dawned on them that she was actually barren and unable to have children.
Of course, this story they present to Jesus is ultimately a theoretical construct devised by the Sadducees to catch him out. We all know that their principal belief was a denial of the resurrection and so this story which purports to believe in the resurrection is unmasked fairly quickly as just another trick question.
It actually betrays the way the Sadducees think because as far as they were concerned there was no resurrection. According to them the only way a man could live after death was by handing his name on to the next generation. We might regard this handing on of one's name as a very poor substitute for the resurrection but since the Sadducees only accepted the first five books of the Bible they had not progressed in their religious understanding and their sect was effectively a religious relic from a previous age.
Jesus has no truck with these Sadducees and points out that when we get to heaven everything will be completely different to the things of this earth. He tells them that when we get to heaven we will be like the angels and have no need to marry. He goes on to point out that even Moses had a belief in the afterlife, something which completely undermines the whole basis of their religious understanding.
So this encounter with the Sadducees is revealed as another encounter between Jesus and those who oppose him. It is another little skirmish in their plan eventually to put him to death. Jesus swats them like a fly. Actually our text stops at verse 38 but verse 40 says, 'No one dared to ask him any more questions.' That brings the controversy to an end and Jesus is able to continue his ministry of teaching.
As a priest you get asked a lot of questions about what happens after death and what things will be like in heaven. They are not exactly like that tricky question asked by the Sadducees but people do want to know whether they will be reunited with their loved ones when they die.
Often when someone does die and we are celebrating the funeral we do place some stress on them being reunited with their husband or wife particularly if they have lived a long and happy married life together.
But one has to express sentiments such as these with a little care since we do not actually know what life will be like in heaven. All we do know is that it will be very different from the way things are here on earth. We will have moved to a completely different plane; we will be taken up into God and be living a life so full of love that it will be completely unrecognisable to us who have not yet reached that blessed state.
So when we say that a couple will be reunited after death while we are not telling any lies we are not telling the whole truth since we do not know precisely what will happen after death. Yes, couples will be reunited but both of them will be caught up in a love that we cannot even begin to comprehend from our present earth-bound perspective.
Jesus concludes his response to the Sadducees by saying that, 'he is God not of the dead but the living, for to him all men are in fact alive.'
By this Jesus means that all people whenever they were born and even if they have already passed away are still alive. This is a profound belief in the resurrection. This means that our real life is not here on this earth but is actually in heaven. It is in heaven that we will acquire our true and lasting status; it is in heaven that we will be resurrected and enabled to live in love with God forever.
It is impossible for us to know what things will be like on the other side of death. We are earth-bound creatures and can only comprehend things by what we see around us. But beyond death we move into a completely different dimension. We will be taken up into God and see things through his eyes. It is only then that we will actually begin to understand what everything is really like.
We are in the month of November and we are thinking very much about those who have died and in particular the members of our own families and anyone with whom we have a connection. We place the names of our loved ones before the altar and include them in our masses during this special month devoted to the Holy Souls.
It is a good thing during the month of November to add the prayer for the dead to our Grace after Meals. 'May the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.'
We pray that the Holy Souls will receive a merciful judgement from God and be cleansed of their sins. We feel united with them because we know that while we can assist them with our prayers they too are able to assist us with their prayers.
We are both able to help each other. This recognises the great unity that exists between the Church on earth and the Church in heaven. It is one Church which is focussed on the worship of God gathered either around the altar of our Church or around the table of the heavenly banquet.
These two Churches, the Church Militant, that is the one here on earth, and the Church Triumphant, that is the one in heaven, are essentially one. We are united in our faith in and worship of God and only separated by the veil of death.
We are told that our true homeland is heaven. It is for heaven that we long, it is for heaven that we prepare ourselves, and it is to heaven that we look for the fulfilment of our final destiny.
More Homilies
