Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time C
A
man and his—shall we say—“difficult” wife
took
a trip to Jerusalem.
While
there, she unexpectedly died.
A
local undertaker told her husband,
“I
can bury your wife here in the Holy Land for just $150,
or
we can send her back to be buried at home for $5,000.”
In
the blink of an eye, the widower responded, “Send her home.”
“But
sir,” the undertaker continued,
“why
go to such great expense?
We
can provide her with a beautiful funeral and grave right here.”
To
which the husband replied, “Long ago, a man died here,
was
buried here, and three days later rose from the dead.
I
just can’t take that chance.”
Resurrection.
Not
all the Jews of Jesus’ day believed in it.
Acceptance
of the idea had been growing for some time,
but
the Sadducees—the old guard—would have none of it.
They
could not believe in an afterlife.
Any
rewards or punishments we human beings were to receive
would
be dished out in this life.
(That’s
why they were so “sad, you see.”)
Faith
in the resurrection—
that
we, like Christ, will rise again to live forever—
became
a rather distinguishing characteristic
of
the earliest Christians.
Such
a faith ought to distinguish us just as much today.
What
we believe about resurrection
affects
how we think about the future.
The
most enduring and perplexing question
faced
by the human race in every generation is:
What happens when we die?
The
Sadducees weren’t willing to take a chance
by
believing in a life beyond this one that they knew,
and
so even their questioning of Jesus on the subject—
“Whose
wife will that woman be?”—
is
pretty convoluted and confused.
Thinking
about heaven and hell,
about the last judgement and purgatory,
about the last judgement and purgatory,
about
“the life of the world to come,”
is
likewise pretty muddled in our own day.
But
if you belong to Jesus,
if you area child of God rather than a child of this age,
if you area child of God rather than a child of this age,
then
faith tells you that you are but a shadow of your future self.
In
the here and now, sin distorts and death downgrades us.
But
in the new creation, in our totality—in both body and soul—
we
will experience a life that is full and glorious;
we
will know an intimacy—with God and with one another—
that
far surpasses that of earthly marriage;
we
will not suffer loss,
but
will be made more and more alive. (cf. N. T. Wright and J. D.
Franks)
And
what we believe about resurrection
also
affects how we live today.
Just
look at the noble and courageous example
of those seven martyrs in the second Book of Maccabees.
of those seven martyrs in the second Book of Maccabees.
They
remain steadfastly faithful to their religion and its law
in
the face of a most cruel death,
not
because they have some peculiar taste for suffering,
nor
because they wish to flee from this world,
but
because they firmly believe
that the God who gives us life
that the God who gives us life
will
also sustain it well beyond
the
narrow limits of our understanding.
(cf. J.
Martens)
We
will all die—from the greatest to the least;
it’s
living that’s the trick. (cf. R. Smith)
Believing
in resurrection,
believing
that we are made for another world,
necessarily
transforms the manner
in
which we make our way through this one.
We
who put our faith in the God of Jesus Christ
willingly
take a chance in believing
that
he is not God of the dead, but of the living.
Because
to God “all are alive,”
we
can “look forward to the resurrection of the dead.”
It’s
an article of faith about the future
with
immense power to shape the present.
William
Penn, the seventeenth century founder of Pennsylvania,
composed
a prayer which captures well
the
faith that ought to distinguish us:
We
give back to you, O God, those whom you gave to us.
You
did not lose them when you gave them to us,
and we do not lose them by their return to you.
and we do not lose them by their return to you.
Your
dear Son has taught us that life is eternal,
and
love cannot die.
So
death is only an horizon,
and
an horizon is only the limit of our sight.
Open
our eyes to see more clearly,
and
draw us closer to you
that we may know we are nearer to our loved ones,
who are with you.
You
have told us that you are preparing a place for us;
prepare
us also for that place,
that
where you are we may also be always,
O
dear Lord of life and death.
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