20161106 RESURRECTION AS THE BASIS FOR HOPE IN THIS LIFE AND
HEREAFTER
Readings at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Green.
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First reading
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2 Maccabees
7:1-2,9-14 ©
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There were seven
brothers who were arrested with their mother. The king tried to force them to
taste pig’s flesh, which the Law forbids, by torturing them with whips and
scourges. One of them, acting as spokesman for the others, said, ‘What are you
trying to find out from us? We are prepared to die rather than break the laws
of our ancestors.’
With his
last breath the second brother exclaimed, ‘Inhuman fiend, you may discharge us
from this present life, but the King of the world will raise us up, since it is
for his laws that we die, to live again for ever.’
After
him, they amused themselves with the third, who on being asked for his tongue
promptly thrust it out and boldly held out his hands, with these honourable
words, ‘It was heaven that gave me these limbs; for the sake of his laws I
disdain them; from him I hope to receive them again.’ The king and his
attendants were astounded at the young man’s courage and his utter indifference
to suffering.
When this
one was dead they subjected the fourth to the same savage torture. When he
neared his end he cried, ‘Ours is the better choice, to meet death at men’s
hands, yet relying on God’s promise that we shall be raised up by him; whereas
for you there can be no resurrection, no new life.’
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm
16(17):1,5-6,8,15 ©
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I shall be filled,
when I awake, with the sight of your glory, O Lord.
Lord, hear a cause
that is just,
pay heed
to my cry.
Turn your ear to my
prayer:
no deceit
is on my lips.
I shall be filled,
when I awake, with the sight of your glory, O Lord.
I kept my
feet firmly in your paths;
there was
no faltering in my steps.
I am here and I call,
you will hear me, O God.
Turn your
ear to me; hear my words.
I shall be filled,
when I awake, with the sight of your glory, O Lord.
Guard me as the apple
of your eye.
Hide me
in the shadow of your wings
As for me, in my
justice I shall see your face
and be
filled, when I awake, with the sight of your glory.
I shall be filled,
when I awake, with the sight of your glory, O Lord.
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Second reading
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2 Thessalonians
2:16-3:5 ©
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May our Lord Jesus
Christ himself, and God our Father who has given us his love and, through his
grace, such inexhaustible comfort and such sure hope, comfort you and
strengthen you in everything good that you do or say.
Finally,
brothers, pray for us; pray that the Lord’s message may spread quickly, and be
received with honour as it was among you; and pray that we may be preserved
from the interference of bigoted and evil people, for faith is not given to
everyone. But the Lord is faithful, and he will give you strength and guard you
from the evil one, and we, in the Lord, have every confidence that you are
doing and will go on doing all that we tell you. May the Lord turn your hearts
towards the love of God and the fortitude of Christ.
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Gospel
Acclamation
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Lk21:36
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Stay awake, praying
at all times
for the strength to
stand with confidence
before the Son of
Man.
Alleluia!
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Or
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Rv1:5,6
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Jesus Christ is the
First-born from the dead:
to him be glory and
power for ever and ever.
Alleluia!
EITHER:
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Gospel
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Luke 20:27-38 ©
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Some Sadducees –
those who say that there is no resurrection – approached Jesus and they
put this question to him, ‘Master, we have it from Moses in writing, that if a
man’s married brother dies childless, the man must marry the widow to raise up
children for his brother. Well then, there were seven brothers. The first,
having married a wife, died childless. The second and then the third married
the widow. And the same with all seven, they died leaving no children. Finally
the woman herself died Now, at the resurrection, to which of them will she be
wife since she had been married to all seven?’
Jesus
replied, ‘The children of this world take wives and husbands, but those who are
judged worthy of a place in the other world and in the resurrection from the
dead do not marry because they can no longer die, for they are the same as the
angels, and being children of the resurrection they are sons of God. And Moses
himself implies that the dead rise again, in the passage about the bush where
he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.
Now he is God, not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all men are in
fact alive.’
RESURRECTION
AS THE BASIS FOR HOPE IN THIS LIFE AND HEREAFTER
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: [ 2MC 7:1-2,9-14; 2THESS 2:16 –
3:5; LK 20:27-38
]
As we
come towards the end of the liturgical year, our minds cannot but be turned
towards the end of time or at least the end of our lives on earth.
Whether we like it or not, we have to face the reality of death and separation
especially from our loved ones on earth. Every separation from those whom
we love is heartbreaking, whether in life or in death. Recognizing this
inevitable final destiny of humanity, the Church helps us to prepare for our
departure by commemorating those who have gone before us by celebrating All
Souls Day and those who have been united with God forever by celebrating All
Saints Day. Like them, we have to face death and judgment followed by our
final place in heaven or hell.
Indeed,
Christian faith in the resurrection is a source of hope and consolation for us
all. How comforting to know that our life does not end in nothing!
Unlike unbelievers who think that with death, everything is gone. If that
were so then in vain is all our work, our contribution to humanity and the
development of the world. In vain too is all morality and
values. That is why those who do not believe in the next life are
basically materialists, living on this world, from this world and for this
world.
But
Christians go beyond simply having faith in the next life. It is not
sufficient for us to hold that a person has passed on, meaning that something
or some essence of that person has passed on to something else which could mean
many things. It could mean that the essence of the person passed on
or the soul passed on to another body as in reincarnation. But it could
also mean that only the memories live on in the descendants, or the person’s
philosophy continues in the world.
All
these perspectives of life after death would be reductionistic for a
Christian. Christians believe not only in the immortality of the soul but
in the resurrection of the body. In other words, not only do we believe
that the soul lives on but that our body would be glorified, that physical,
corporeal body would be transfigured at the end of time like Jesus the Risen
Lord who was raised from the dead by the Father in the power of the Holy
Spirit. This faith in the resurrection is proclaimed unambiguously in today’s
scripture readings.
In the gospel Jesus defends
the truth of the resurrection of the body against the Sadducees who did not
believe in the resurrection. He puts to rest their objection by citing
the scripture text where Moses “calls the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of
Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is God, not of the dead, but of the living;
for to him all men are in fact alive.” The corollary therefore is that
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob must be still alive even though they were no longer
seen on earth, or else how could God be their God.
But what is the resurrected
life? What will happen after our death? What kind of bodies will we
have? What kind of life in the next world? Will we still be
reunited with our loved ones? These are valid questions.
Consequently, the question of the Sadducees regarding the woman who married all
of the seven brothers has relevance in helping us to understand the nature of
the resurrection. The response of Jesus was simply that the resurrected
life is simply different from this life. There is a transformation in the
quality of life, both body and soul.
Does it
mean to say that those of us who are married or have children or have soul
mates and confidante in this life will in the next life be unable to recognize
them or at least no longer be united in intimacy as on earth? Of course
not! On the contrary, the intimacy and love in heaven will be stronger
and more intense than ever. For on this earth, regardless how much we
love another person, this love is still tainted with selfishness,
possessiveness, fear and inadequacies. In heaven, we will be totally
loving and giving to each other, not just to our loved ones but with all
peoples, since love in heaven will no longer be exclusive but inclusive, will no
longer be limited by human weakness but be filled with the Spirit of God, will
no longer be temporal but everlasting, will no longer be uncertain but
permanent. Yes, relationships on earth are perfected in heaven to
such a degree that it is identical with God’s unconditional love for us.
What, then, is the
implication for our faith in the resurrection? It means firstly that
marriage is a beautiful sacrament. Indeed, it is a grace of God and
analogous, as St Paul would later write in his letter to the Ephesians, to
Christ’s love for His Church, Jesus the bridegroom and the Church His
bride. So too in marriage husbands and wives are called to love each
other like Jesus by surrendering ourselves to each other even to the extent of
dying for each other. Marital love therefore is also the
anticipation of the love of God and a participation of God’s unconditional
love. In marriage, a couple experiences intimacy through the yearning for
each other’s presence, the union of mind in mutual caring and understanding,
the mutual giving of self to each other, all so sacramentally expressed in the
union of bodies in sexual relationship.
Thus,
if we want to share in the fullness of life in the resurrection, then we must
already start living a life of love and unity with our spouse, children,
friends and with each other. By experiencing human love from each other
we will also have a partial experience of the depth of God’s love for
us. This is necessarily so because we are constituted of body and
soul. We need to feel the love not only in our hearts and minds but also
in and through our bodies. Human love is mediated through eros before it
becomes agape, from possessive love to oblative love. Thus, human love,
because it is imperfect, must be purified till it reaches divine love.
This is
where we come to realize that we need divine love or else as human beings we
cannot love perfectly not only God but our loved ones. We cannot give
what we do not have. As fallen creatures all of us are sinners and
therefore selfish and protective of ourselves in love. We are all wounded
in love and therefore unable to give ourselves totally to the other
person. We are selfish and self-centered even in loving. To be able
to love selflessly and freely is a grace from God. Man cannot always give
unless he also receives. He cannot give oblative love unless he himself
is loved in return. So in the human person, eros and oblative love are
complementary to each other.
It is
within this context that we proclaim the love of God for us. The novelty
of the Christian message is that God loves us, unconditionally and totally in
Christ. It is this faith in God’s love for us that we can now love each
other. God’s personal love for us is totally eros and yet totally agape,
possessive and oblative. It is this experience of His love for us in Christ
that we realize how much God loves us and wants to possess us so much so that
He would emptied His life for us on the cross. It is a love that
forgives. It is a love that is patient and enduring. This
passionate and possessive love of God is therefore not due to His weakness but
because of His immense love for us since He knows that only in Him can we share
in His perfect love.
Thus,
it is so important to recover the love of God for us. Whilst human love
is important, it is even more important that we experience His love concretely
and personally in our lives, especially through conversion experiences and
graced encounters with Him. Otherwise, the love of God is not real in our
lives. Only by sharing in the Israelites and the Christians’ experience
of God’s personal love in Christ, can we perfect our human love for each other
and for Him.
We cannot speak of heaven
and the resurrection of the body without grounding the future life of the
immortality of the soul with the resurrected body on the permanence of
love. This was what St Paul wrote to the Thessalonians who were hoping
for the coming of the Kingdom. “May our Lord Jesus Christ himself,
and God our Father who has given us his love and, through his grace, such
inexhaustible comfort and such sure hope, comfort you and strengthen you in
everything good that you do or say.”
In the
meantime, we must continue the work of establishing His love in our lives,
beginning with our family, our community and our workplace and in
society. We must extend the love of God to all of humanity so that
through our human love for them, they might encounter the love of God.
Through our acts of love, mercy and compassionate work, we will help the
healing process of the wounded hearts of our fellowmen and through such
kindness, they will begin to see a glimpse of God’s love for them, enabling
them to open their hearts in faith to the full installment of His love in
Christ.
Of
course, in reaching out to the world, we cannot rely on our own strength to
love but we must rely totally on God’s grace and His faithfulness to us.
St Paul assures us, “But the Lord is faithful, and he will give you strength
and guard you from the evil one, and we, in the Lord, have every confidence
that you are doing and will go on doing all that we tell you. May the Lord turn
your hearts towards the love of God and the fortitude of Christ.”
Written by The Most Rev William Goh Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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