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MEDITATION
ON DEATH
23 NOVEMBER,
2019, Saturday, 33rd Week, Ordinary Time
Readings at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Green.
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First reading
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1 Maccabees 6:1-13 ©
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'I remember the wrong I did in Jerusalem'
King Antiochus
was making his way across the upper provinces; he had heard that in Persia
there was a city called Elymais, renowned for its riches, its silver and gold,
and its very wealthy temple containing golden armour, breastplates and weapons,
left there by Alexander son of Philip, the king of Macedon, the first to reign
over the Greeks. He therefore went and attempted to take the city and pillage
it, but without success, since the citizens learnt of his intention, and
offered him a stiff resistance, whereupon he turned about and retreated,
disconsolate, in the direction of Babylon. But while he was still in Persia
news reached him that the armies that had invaded the land of Judah had been
defeated, and that Lysias in particular had advanced in massive strength, only
to be forced to turn and flee before the Jews; these had been strengthened by
the acquisition of arms, supplies and abundant spoils from the armies they had
cut to pieces; they had overthrown the abomination he had erected over the
altar in Jerusalem, and had encircled the sanctuary with high walls as in the
past, and had fortified Bethzur, one of his cities. When the king heard this
news he was amazed and profoundly shaken; he threw himself on his bed and fell
into a lethargy from acute disappointment, because things had not turned out
for him as he had planned. And there he remained for many days, subject to deep
and recurrent fits of melancholy, until he understood that he was dying. Then
summoning all his Friends, he said to them, ‘Sleep evades my eyes, and my heart
is cowed by anxiety. I have been asking myself how I could have come to such a
pitch of distress, so great a flood as that which now engulfs me – I who
was so generous and well-loved in my heyday. But now I remember the wrong I did
in Jerusalem when I seized all the vessels of silver and gold there, and
ordered the extermination of the inhabitants of Judah for no reason at all.
This, I am convinced, is why these misfortunes have overtaken me, and why I am
dying of melancholy in a foreign land.’
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Responsorial
Psalm
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Psalm 9A(9):2-4,6,16,19 ©
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I
will rejoice in your saving help, O Lord.
I
will praise you, Lord, with all my heart;
I
will recount all your wonders.
I
will rejoice in you and be glad,
and
sing psalms to your name, O Most High.
I
will rejoice in your saving help, O Lord.
See
how my enemies turn back,
how
they stumble and perish before you.
You
have checked the nations, destroyed the wicked;
you
have wiped out their name for ever and ever.
I
will rejoice in your saving help, O Lord.
The
nations have fallen in the pit which they made,
their
feet caught in the snare they laid;
for
the needy shall not always be forgotten
nor
the hopes of the poor be in vain.
I
will rejoice in your saving help, O Lord.
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Gospel
Acclamation
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cf.Lk8:15
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Alleluia,
alleluia!
Blessed
are those who,
with
a noble and generous heart,
take
the word of God to themselves
and
yield a harvest through their perseverance.
Alleluia!
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Or:
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cf.2Tim1:10
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Alleluia,
alleluia!
Our
Saviour Jesus Christ abolished death
and
he has proclaimed life through the Good News.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Luke 20:27-40 ©
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In God all men are alive
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.’
Some
scribes then spoke up. ‘Well put, Master’ they said – because they would
not dare to ask him any more questions.
MEDITATION ON
DEATH
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ 1 Mc 6:1-13; Ps 9:2-4, 6, 16, 19; Lk 20:27-40 ]
As we approach the last
week of the liturgical year, the Church invites us to reflect on the reality of
death. The temptation of
the world today is to postpone reflecting on death because Satan wants to
prevent us from waking up to the truth of what life is all about. So long
as we do not think of death, we do not have to confront the ultimate meaning of
life. Indeed, most of us live in such a way, thinking that death happens
to others but not us. We think that we still have a long way to go,
whether we are young or old. Alas, death knows no age or time.
Death can come suddenly, because of illness, accident, natural disasters, and
not just old age.
So before we lie on our
death bed in regret, like King Antiochus, we should consider the prospect of
death so that we can live this short life purposefully and fully. Only when we ponder on death, can we
decide how we should be living our life today. Imagine yourself on your
death bed and looking at your past. Would you desire to live your life
differently as you did? What are those mistakes or bad decisions that you
made and which you wish were otherwise? How you want to die will
determine how you should live your life. The end of your life is but a
summation of all that we have lived for, struggled for in our whole life. Death
is the summary and fixation of all that we have done in our life.
King Antiochus on his
death bed came to realize his folly. We read that he was “profoundly
shaken; he threw himself on his bed and fell into a lethargy from acute
disappointment, because things had not turned out for him as he had
planned. And there he remained for many days, subject to deep and
recurrent fits of melancholy, until he understood that he was dying.” In
his depressed and despondent mood, he summoned his friends and said to them,
“Sleep evades my eyes, and my heart is cowed by anxiety. I have been
asking myself how I could have come to such a pitch of distress, so great a
flood as that which now engulfs me – I who was so generous and well-loved in my
heyday. But now I remember the wrong I did in Jerusalem when I seized all
the vessels of silver and gold there, and ordered the extermination of the
inhabitants of Judah for no reason at all. This, I am convinced, is why
these misfortunes have overtaken me, and why I am dying of melancholy in a
foreign land.”
Indeed, he came to
realize the consequences of his futile pursuits for greater wealth, power and
territory. He sought to take
over the “city called Elymais, renowned for its riches, its silver and gold,
and its very wealthy temple containing golden armour, breastplates and weapons”
but without success. They put up a strong resistance and he had to
retreat. His army in Judah was also defeated. With one failure
after another, he became discouraged, hopeless and gave up on himself.
His ego was wounded. He had no more will to live on. Indeed, like
him, for all our pursuits of worldly success in life, we will also come to this
realization at the end of this long vain pursuit that we had worked for
nothing. Wealth, fame and power cannot sustain us for long.
Our security cannot be found in these useless quests. Like Alexander
before him, he, too, would have to leave this world behind him, not able to
bring along with him anything at his death.
That is why we must ask
the question of the finality of life. What is life? What are we
living for? Where do we go after death? If our answer is like that of the
Sadducees, that upon death, we will be reduced to non-existence in Sheol, then
life becomes meaningless. This is the same struggle for those who are not
believers in God or in Christ. For them, their life is only on this
earth. Since they do not believe in God and God is pure Spirit, when we die, we
are like the animals and plants; we will also go back to dust. Nothing of
us continues. Once dead, everything is over. Only our good deeds
might live after us but we will disappear.
But the Lord today makes
it clear that there is life after death. We will not disappear into thin
air. Firstly, he said, “in
the resurrection from the dead … they can no longer die, for they are the same
as the angels, and being children of the resurrection they are sons of
God.” Clearly, in this statement, Jesus affirmed the immortality of
the soul. We are like angels in the sense that we share also in their
spiritual nature. As spirits, we cannot die but are immortal. Hence, for
us Catholics, we believe that upon death, our soul lives on, either in heaven,
in purgatory or in hell. The soul, which is spiritual, cannot die.
Indeed, logic and
experience will tell us that we are different from animals and plants because we have an intelligence that
enables us to live in the past, go beyond the present to the future, and even
if our body is resting or even in coma, the intellect and will remains with
us. This is why we all desire that love lasts forever. We hope that
after death, we will be reunited with our loved ones who have gone before
us. All of us cherish that hope. Otherwise, love is meaningless
because love is just temporary on earth. No wonder, those who do not
believe in God only have the memories of their loved ones to cherish. But
those who believe in God know that their loved ones are still with them and
that they live on.
To dismiss the argument
of the Sadducees who do not believe in the resurrection and the spirits, Jesus
employed the Torah, the only books accepted by the Sadducees in the bible, to
substantiate His argument.
“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.” Indeed, God who showed Himself to Moses affirmed that He is
the God of the patriarchs who died hundreds of years ago. Faith in the
future life is affirmed in the psalm. “Yet I am always with you; you hold
me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you
will take me into glory.” (Ps 73:23f)
But the ultimate ground
for faith in the resurrection is founded on Christ’s death and resurrection. “I am the resurrection and the
life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they
die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.” (Jn 11:25f) St Paul wrote, “So will it
be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is
perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is
raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is
sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.” (1 Cor 15:42-44) Like the rest of creation, St
Paul wrote, “we ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the
Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to
sonship, the redemption of our bodies.” (Rom 8:23)
Consequently, our faith
does not allow us to accept the theory of reincarnation and transmigration of
souls. If we believe
that Christ is the Son of God, and He has taught us about the resurrection, and
then rectified it by His death and resurrection, there is no question of “ifs”
but an act of faith in the truth of the doctrine of resurrection of the
dead. So whether we believe in the next life and most of all, in the
resurrection, is dependent on our faith in Christ who died and rose for
us. Those who believe in reincarnation or transmigration of souls show
that they do not really believe in Christ, nor His death and resurrection.
But if we do, then it is
important that we should now consider carefully how we live our lives today. St Paul says, “I consider that our
present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed
in us.” (Rom 8:18) We are
children of God as Jesus taught us. “Now if we are children, then we are
heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his
sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” (Rom 8:17) It was this hope that spurred
St Paul to give up his life for Christ and his people. “For I am already
being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is
near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race.
I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of
righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that
day – and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his
appearing.” (2 Tim 4:6-8)
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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