Sunday, November 6, 2022
Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
First Reading: 2 MACCABEES 7:1-2, 9-14
Responsorial Psalm: PSALMS 17:1, 5-6, 8, 15
Second Reading: 2 THESSALONIANS 2:16–3:5
Gospel: LUKE 20:27-38
As we draw close to the end of the liturgical year, the readings begin to focus our attention on the last things. Today, the readings invite us to reflect on what happens after we die. What will the afterlife look like? When as Christians we talk about the immortality of the soul, what do we really mean?
We are now in Chapter 20 of Luke’s Gospel. Beginning from chapter 9, Jesus has been on his final journey to Jerusalem, a journey that reached its climax in chapter 19 with His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. In the Gospel of last Sunday, He entered Jericho which is only 15 miles from Jerusalem.
The context has radically changed. This is because we skipped almost an entire chapter. Today Jesus is already in Jerusalem. What did we miss? We missed the multitude of people coming out to greet Him with loud acclamations as He entered Jerusalem, we missed Jesus’ weeping for Jerusalem’s failure to recognize the hour of her visitation, we missed Jesus entering the temple and driving out the money changers with righteous fury. With the crowd following Him, Jesus began to teach. And straightaway, there were vocal oppositions. First, the Chief priests and the elders challenged Him, “tell us by whose authority you do these things.” They were enraged and looking for an excuse to arrest Him and put Him to death. Next, the Scribes asked Him, “is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” Jesus gave them an answer they could not contest and left them dumbfounded and frustrated. That leads us to the Gospel today.
The Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection of the body or the immortality of the soul came forward and put a question to Jesus. First of all, who were the Sadducees and why were they asking the question? The Sadducees were often lumped together with the Pharisees but in reality, they had a radically different political, ideological and theological spectrum. In fact, they were rivals of the Pharisees. The only thing that united them in the first century was their fierce opposition to Jesus. Although the Pharisees were a large religious body, they had no political ambition. All they cared about was the exact observance of the law. The Sadducees were a small but very powerful group and consisted of high-ranking priests and aristocrats. They were the governing class and collaborated with the Roman Empire. The Pharisees accepted all Hebrew Scriptures; the law, the prophets and Writings while the Sadducees accepted only those things contained in the first five books of the Bible – the Pentateuch attributed to Moses. According to their reading of it, it makes no mention of the afterlife or spirits. We can call them materialists. For them, everything ends with matter and death is the ultimate end.
According to the levirate law (Deut. 25: 5ff), if a man dies leaving his wife childless, his brother was duty-bound to marry his widow to provide his brother with descendants. The consequence of this law would seem to give rise to a ridiculous situation at the resurrection of the dead. They presented Jesus with a situation where all seven brothers following the levirate law married a woman in succession and not producing a child, and later the woman also died. They asked Him, ‘in this afterlife of yours, whose wife will she be?’ This ridiculous situation was meant to demonstrate the absurdity of resurrection from the dead.
How does Jesus respond to this awkward question and what does it teach us? The Sadducees cited Deuteronomy 25 which is part of the Pentateuch. Responding, Jesus also cited the Pentateuch (Exodus 3: 2, 6), where Moses was fearfully approaching the burning bush and God called out, “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had died many centuries before Moses yet, God spoke about them in the present. There is a permanent relationship between God and Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They are alive in God; they have become immortal. The position of the Sadducees simply evaporates. This is a very comforting message for all who have lost a loved one or are sad because we all will die someday. For God, all are alive.
The error of the Sadducees is that they try with their limited intelligence to understand immortality and the properties of those who rise from the dead. Their understanding of the resurrection is no more than the prolongation of human history and they have no idea what God has planned for those who love Him. The response of Jesus teaches us that we cannot believe in God without believing in the resurrection. The catechism of the catholic Church teaches us that faith in the resurrection is the culmination of our faith in God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and in the creative, saving and sanctifying action. Just as Christ rose from the dead and lives forever, so after death the righteous will rise and live with Him forever.
The first reading from the Second Book of the Maccabees recounts one of the most famous episodes in the history of the Maccabees. Antiochus IV wanted to unify his empire which included Jerusalem with Greek customs. He proscribed Jewish laws and customs, dedicated the temple in Jerusalem to Zeus and executed anyone who possessed a copy of the Torah. The seven brothers we meet in the first reading today were ordered to eat pork which was forbidden by Jewish law and customs.
What motivated these young men to prefer to suffer torture and death rather than offend the law? The bravery of these men was inspired by God’s promise that the just will rise again to blessedness and evil-doers to punishment. They trusted in the power of God to give new and more glorious life after this life. This is evident in their replies in the face of torture and martyrdom. The first said, ‘the just man prefers to die rather than sin.’
To be a Christian is to believe in the resurrection and in the life of the world to come. This is the faith that urges us live a life that bears witness to the resurrection and to be ready to lay down our lives for the sake of God and His kingdom.
Happy Sunday
Fr Chidi Onwuka M,Ss.Cc