The God of the living
At the death of someone very dear it is very hard for most people to accept that the beloved person is gone for ever. We wish to see the deceased one again. For a Christian, though death is a cruel separation, this is not a mere pious wish. For we believe that physical death is not the end; we believe in the resurrection. Just as Jesus died but rose from the dead, so will we rise again. This is a certainty of faith that gives meaning to life. God is a God of the living. We express this quiet but firm faith as we are gathered here around our risen Lord.
Even before Christ’s coming, women and youngsters chose to die rather than deny their faith in God and go against his law. For they were certain that God would raise them up and restore their tortured bodies.
As they did not believe in the resurrection, the sect of the Sadducees tried to ridicule belief in it. Jesus answers that they are too materialistic to understand the resurrection. Those raised up will live not as on earth but with a totally new life.
First Reading: 2 Maccabees 7:1-2,9-14
Another historical item; another story from the past.
A Jewish mother and her seven sons were apprehended by thugs sent by Antiochus IV, known by his fans as Godlike, which he certainly was not. After refusing to eat pork, which was against the Law, the boys were bullied and whipped to try to force them to even touch it.
One of the young men, the eldest of them, spoke up. “Why are you beating us? Why do you care whether we eat pork or not? one thing we’ll tell you; we’d rather die than break the dietary rules that were given to us by our ancestors.”
They then made sport with the third young man. When it came time for them to do their blade work, he stretched out his hands and stuck out his tongue, but not before he said a few last words.
“These I have from heaven, but I love God’s word more than my hands and tongue; besides he’ll give them back to me in the future.”
The king was impressed by the young man’s resilience, but he was also annoyed that he thought death by torture was no great deal.
After the third came the fourth. He too had some last words.
“Being put to death by human beings is nothing; to be raised up by
God, that’s something to look forward to. You kill me, but you have nothing to look forward to.”
Second Reading: 2 Thessalonians 2:16–3:5
Keep a tight grip on what you were taught, whether in personal conversation or by our letter. May Jesus himself and God our Father, who reached out in love and surprised you with gifts of unending help and confidence, put a fresh heart in you, invigorate your work, enliven your speech.
One more thing, friends: Pray for us. Pray that the Master’s Word will simply take off and race through the country to a groundswell of response, just as it did among you. And pray that we’ll be rescued from these scoundrels who are trying to do us in. I’m finding that not all “believers” are believers. But the Master never lets us down. He’ll stick by you and protect you from evil.
Because of the Master, we have great confidence in you. We know you’re doing everything we told you and will continue doing it. May the Master take you by the hand and lead you along the path of God’s love and Christ’s endurance.
Gospel: Luke 20:27-38
Some Sadducees came up. This is the Jewish party that denies any possibility of resurrection. They asked, “Teacher, Moses wrote us that if a man dies and leaves a wife but no child, his brother is obligated to take the widow to wife and get her with child. Well, there once were seven brothers. The first took a wife. He died childless. The second married her and died, then the third, and eventually all seven had their turn, but no child. After all that, the wife died. That wife, now—in the resurrection whose wife is she? All seven married her.”
Jesus said, “Marriage is a major preoccupation here, but not there. Those who are included in the resurrection of the dead will no longer be concerned with marriage nor, of course, with death. They will have better things to think about, if you can believe it. All ecstasies and intimacies then will be with God. Even Moses exclaimed about resurrection at the burning bush, saying, ‘God: God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob!’ God isn’t the God of dead men, but of the living. To him all are alive.”
Prayer
God of the living,
you have created us for life, love and joy.
As we share also in the cross of Jesus,
in the pains and sorrows of life,
keep our hope alive that your faithful love
will have the final say,
and that life will overcome death,
for you have raised Jesus from the dead.
Give us the firm longing and faith
that you will raise us up with him
and let this conviction be our strength
every day of our life.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Video available at: bibleclaret.org
