Thirty Second Sunday In Ordinary Time (Year C)

II Macc 7.1-2, 9-14;
II Thess 2.16-3.5;
Lk 20.27-38

In last Week’s Sunday gospel, we see the faith and courage of Zacchaeus. He welcomed Christ home and became charitable. In today’s first reading, we also see the courage displayed by a mother and her seven sons for their Jewish faith and law. They were martyred for their faith and religious beliefs. Are we that courageous? How deep is your faith and love for God?
As people of faith, we believe we will rise, as reflected on the inscription on each monk’s head stone at St Anslem Abbey’s cemetery in Manchester, New Hampshire. Above each Benedictine’s name, dates of birth and death are the words “Here will rise.” What a beautiful statement of firm belief.

This belief in resurrection did not develop in the Jewish community until about 200 years before Christ. Every Jew didn’t buy it, including the priestly, aristocratic and merchant classes, collectively known as the Sadducees, who were the clever ones trying to embarrass Jesus in today’s Gospel. They seemed to want to box him in, to sham him and the movement that was developing around him. Maybe they felt threatened, wondering if his followers got the upper hand, they’d be left in a demoted social position.

The questions about married life beyond the grave which the Sadducees put to Our Lord in today’s gospel, these questions show quite clearly that they had no understanding at all about what life after death might be like. That in itself is not surprising. Unlike us, they did not have the benefit of the Lord’s revelation concerning heaven and eternal life. In contrast to the Sadducees, we know that one of the most important truths which Christ came down from heaven to reveal to us was precisely this: the possibility for all of us to have everlasting happiness with God, in heaven.

We believe in a God who gives life; life in abundance. Christ offered himself for our sake on the cross to the FatherThe Resurrection of Jesus brings to fulfillment the works of salvation.
Seeing violence in our streets and in war-torn spots around the globe, witnessing the killing of our planet by global warming, experiencing illness, depression, stress and an inner sense of not- being-good-enough in a consumer, status-conscience culture, can leave even the most faith- filled person wondering if angels will support us, lift us up and sustain us. We need the power of Christ’s resurrection to being peace to our troubled world.

These truths are very much in minds of course during the month of November. In this month we celebrate not only the glories of the communion of saints, but traditionally in this month we should also pray hard for the souls of the faithful departed. All Saints and All Souls coming immediately next to each other in the Church’s calendar bring the reality of the afterlife to the front of our minds. It makes us wonder exactly what our experience will be when, by God’s grace, we do one day join the company of the blessed in heaven, with Our Lady and all the saints. Thinking of the departed so much during November, the month of the Holy Souls, we cannot but wonder what sort of life we are helping the departed to attain to, to reach, when we pray for them, above all when we have Holy Mass offered up for them.

Let us, therefore, in our frightened, confusing and sad moments ask God for this grace to be encouraged and strengthened until the hour of our death. In moments of darkness in our lives, only the grace of God can hold and console us. Our most frightening moment comes at the time of our own death, unless we are blessed with the gift Paul wishes for us in the Epistle today: “May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting encouragement and good hope through his grace, encourage your hearts and straighten them in every good deed and word.”

Fr Osho