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Dear Friend, Sometimes when
confronted with terrible events and unexpected death and suffering of
innocent ones, we ask: Where is God? Why do these things have to happen? Why
does not God do something? Does life make any sense in the face of evil? God
does not provide satisfactory answers but our faith in God can help us to
live and go beyond. Our God is a God of life and of the living. He brings
forth and sustains life! Have a faith renewing weekend! Fr. Jude Botelho |
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The context of today’s first reading is the
persecution by King Antiochus of the Jews because of their fidelity to
their religion. As today, just as in
the past, the abstention from eating pork characterized one of the religious
practices of the Jews. They were persecuted for this and forced to eat pork
in public which they resisted. In today’s reading we see the powerful witness
that a family gives as they prefer to die rather than go against their faith.
The motto of the religious Jew was: Death rather than going against God’s
precepts and commandments. The brave mother consoles and encourages her seven
sons to go their death rather than betray their God. This is one of the first
expressions in the Old Testament of belief in the personal resurrection. In the
face of persecution Israel confesses that God is sufficiently powerful and
just to raise them to a blessed life. Aware of the opposition
that Christians faced and being himself confronted with opposition as he
preaches the gospel, Paul in his second letter writes to the people in
Thessalonica to remain united in love and fellowship. Conscious of the power
of prayer Paul invites his fellow Christians to pray to God with him, that
the Lord who is faithful will keep them faithful to the love of God. He
himself prays for his converts to strengthen them and keep them faithful to
God. “May the Lord through his grace comfort and strengthen you in everything
good that you do and say. May the Lord turn your hearts towards the love of
God and towards fortitude of Christ.” Pray always In the course of his public ministry Jesus faced a variety of groups
and individuals critical of his beliefs and values. In today’s gospel Jesus
is approached by some Sadducees who question him about the resurrection. Like
so many of us, the Sadducees clung to their own way of thinking which led
them to be religiously conservative, opposing any doctrine that did not fit
into their way of thinking and living. They believed only in the present
life, they enjoyed the present, without any worry or concern about the
afterlife and hence they questioned the resurrection. In today’s gospel they
pose a tricky rabbinical question to Jesus to catch him. They attempt to
ridicule the resurrection of the dead by recalling the Mosaic Law on levirate
marriage, which stated that if a man dies and has no son, and therefore no
legal heir, his brother must marry the widow. In this way the continuity of
the family would be guaranteed. The Sadducees develop their example to
absurdity in instancing seven brothers each of whom marry the same woman, but
each of whom die childless. Jesus in his response elevates the discussion to
give a deeper understanding of the resurrected life. Firstly, he said we
should not look at the afterlife from our human and limited perspective. Life
there is quite different. Secondly, since the Sadducees held only to the Law
of Moses, Jesus returned to that, citing the remarkable incident of Moses
encountering God in the burning bush, where he identifies himself as the God
of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. When Moses heard from God, Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob were long dead, yet God said “I am the God of these three patriarchs”
not “I was” but “I am!” their God. So Abraham, Isaac and Jacob still lived!
So the creative power of God brings about life after death! The Sadducees
became silent. Jesus had showed them that God was the God of life, and God of
the living, and those who believe live forever. God of the living An old man, an accomplished artist, was applying the finishing touches
to a bronze sculpture. He kept filing and polishing every scraping little
surface of his masterpiece. “When will it be done?” asked an observer.
“Never” came the reply. “I just keep working and working until they come and
take it away.” -So also is life. It
is a pilgrimage; it is an ongoing process. The life is blessed when lived
well; it is a gift to be used every day. For what makes life precious and
worth living is not the years we live but the deeds we do. All our dear
departed ones are in the hands of God, they are living persons: living with
God. Antony Kolencherry in ‘Living the Word’ “Many of our contemporaries no longer believe in the immorality of the soul or the resurrection of the body. Taken up with the tragic and repelling character of death, they cannot conceive that life can continue under other forms when earthly existence is ended. There are even Christians who go along with the view of death as a definitive end: they have no hope either of a personal afterlife or a general resurrection. For them Jesus only lives in his disciples in the measure in which they keep his memory and live in his spirit. ….The teaching on the resurrection of the dead, formulated much later than Moses, seemed to the Sadducees stupid and useless. In this spirit they put to Jesus in today’s gospel one of those fantastic problems dear to all casuists. Taking the law that a man must marry his brother’s childless widow, they use it to pour ridicule on the doctrine they reject. Jesus does not meet them on their own level. In the new world of the resurrection, there will be no question of marriage or procreation. On the deepest level Jesus replies by an act of faith in God, the Living One! The doctrine of the resurrection is not a doctrine one can take or leave: Jesus himself was to die as witness to this hope in the God of the living.” - Glenstal Bible Missal Film –The Day After When the movie The Day After was shown on television
in 1983, it caused quite a controversy. This was because it was focused on
the ultimate what if- the event of a global nuclear war. What if
the population of Kansas City is instantly reduced to vapourised silhouettes;
what if the blistered wounded are doomed to die; what if some
survivors are surrounded by radioactive fallout that settles like a fine
white dust all over the earth? The Day After was intended primarily to
provoke serious reflection and discussion about nuclear disarmament. But it
also provokes questions about our faith. Would a good God allow such a
terrifying evil to happen? Why do we have to die at all? Is there really a
resurrection? –Today’s readings suggest some answers to these questions, not
in the sense of complete explanations, but in the sense of strengthening our
faith in Jesus Christ, the Risen Son of the Living God. We don’t get a
satisfying answer from the Scriptures to the question, “How can a good God
allow such terrible evils like the slaughter of the seven sons, or the death
of the Marines in Lebanon to occur? But we do get an affirmation of our faith
in an afterlife. No matter how terrifying death may be, whether at the hands
of terrorists or nuclear weapons, life will be restored. No matter how much
destruction a nuclear holocaust may cause, the day after will never be
the last day. A new heaven and a new earth will appear, because our
God is a God of the living and not of the dead. With Christian faith and hope
we are strong enough to survive any today, and, if need be, any day
after. Albert Cylwicki in ‘His Word Resounds’ May we believe in God who sustains and nourishes life always! Fr. Jude
Botelho |
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