"He is not God of the dead, but of the living"
Luke 20: 27 - 38
Human thinking is not exact science and we humans are
unpredictable. For example, in a very real sense these days we live in the age
of personal opinion: Facebook, twitter, texting, websites, etc. Many feel that what we hear so
much of on the news is not a clear report of the facts but rather how one
reporter or groups of reporters may feel about this particular event.
So on the 24 hr news broadcasts we hear endless editorializing,
personal opinions and viewpoints of the news that was just reported. Sadly too often we take ones opinion about
something as fact. The same often seems true about politics. Here’s the economy and how I will fix it. These are the priorities that are important
“to all Americans.” Hmmm?
The same seems true in religious opinion. God knows everyone these days has an opinion
on what the Church should and should not do.
Social media has revealed, however, likely what has always been to
a certain extent. Christian history relates that it has never been one truth one opinion. The same clearly
existed in the time of Jesus within the Jewish community and certainly between
the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees on the belief in resurrection from
the dead. Both our first reading and our Gospel this Sunday teach us about the
afterlife and in particular this truth, not opinion, based in Biblical texts
and ancient Creedal tradition.
Our first reading from Maccabees, about 200 years before Jesus,
tells the great heroism of “seven brothers” and their mother who went to their
deaths rather than defy Jewish dietary law. Their inspired faith reveals that
of future resurrection three times in this reading. Ready to die, the one brother proclaims: “the King of the world will raise us up to
live again forever . . . the hope God gives of being raised up . . . for you
(the pagan King) there will be no resurrection to life.” They died
believing that this life as we know it does not continue as we know it but is
changed, transformed to something greater and eternal.
So, as belief in life after this life circulated among certain
segments of Jewish teachers, this naturally opened the door for our Lord to
rebut the proposition posed by the Sadducees in our Gospel as he always did so
well.
The Sadducees, a very conservative group, pose a hypothetical
situation to Jesus about a woman who married seven brothers successively as
each of them died. According to Mosaic Law, the line of progeny must continue
so marriage to the brother of a deceased husband was not out of the question.
Poking fun in a sense at the concept of life after death, the Sadducees present
this absurd scenario to Jesus for his comment. They state: “Now at the resurrection whose wife will that
woman be?” Good question but the Sadducees
did not believe in the resurrection and they knew Jesus
teaching contained references to this. Their intent was to dismiss Jesus’
teaching, and that of the Pharisees, on resurrection after death for the
Sadducees based their belief on the fact that the Torah which they followed
makes no reference to a resurrection of the dead. Their focus was entirely of
this world alone. Such was their opinion.
As Jesus debates with the Sadducees, he expands their limited,
material understanding of the relationship between the resurrected life and
this life. He states essentially that the resurrected life is not a repetition
of this one. After death there is a spiritual existence as the soul is
separated from the material body to “live” in a different state of eternity, a
place in which human relationships change from something of this material
world, to something spiritual. It is a kind of transformation; a new life.
He skillfully uses the scenario posed by his detractors to
explain that: “. . . those who are deemed
worthy to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead neither
neither marry nor are given in marriage.
They can no longer die, for they are like angels; and they are children
of God because they are the ones who will rise.”
Stating further that even Moses implied continued life when he
called out: “Lord, the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” as the God of the living, thereby
stating that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob still live! Marriage, therefore, is
something of this world and necessary for the continuation of the human race.
But, in eternity it is no longer necessary so the Sadducees hypothetical case
is just that – imaginary when applied to eternity and resurrection.
But is this just Jesus’ opinion? Simply put, knowing who he is
and the fact that he said it, grounded in the revealed Scriptures and tradition
as he is God incarnate among us, it is accepted as infallible Dogma of the
Church. Therefore, we have hope that this
life as we know it will be changed not ended after death. His own resurrection
from the dead on that first Easter verifies this fact and assures us that death
has been conquered. Transformed in eternity
and we will be not Angels themselves but as Jesus stated “like the angels” in a
spiritual existence.
Now towards end of this liturgical year and in the month of
November, we reflect about our future. We are remembering all month the
faithful departed; our brothers and sisters who have died and now live in that
future spiritual reality.
Faith should motivate us to step into a world beyond this one
to imagine another type of reality that is not constrained by space, time, and
the laws of the natural world. If there is no way to prove that life does not
continue beyond this one, then it is possible that it does. This is where faith
speaks to us.
Jesus states: “They are
like angels.” Angels are pure spirits so our future has something to do
with an existence outside of space and time; a place of pure spirit but an
existence where we remain who we are. A bit heavy but a call to trust.
This offers us a perspective. That we should look at this life
as pure gift that ultimately calls us to deeper trust in God and to believe
that God’s desire is that we find that ultimate union with him in
eternity. That what we do now, how we
live in this world as a Christian people, does make a difference and will in
eternity as well. It’s not personal opinion because we don’t live our faith
based on personal opinion but on divinely revealed truth. If we stand on this one we are not on
shifting sand but people of Hope.
The Eucharist we feed upon and the Word of God we hear offer us
that road map and the spiritual strength to achieve this salvation.
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