 |
| Life After Death |
| (Luke 20:27, 34-38) |
|
| Our
first reading this Sunday (2 Macabees 7:1-2, 9-14) is one of the most
celebrated stories in Hebrew literature. It is the story of a mother
who is forced to see all of her seven sons die a savage death on a
single day for a dictator's delight, because each had refused to eat
pork. Unfortunately, we only have a small part of the whole story, so we
miss so much of the drama. |
| It
all took place about 175 B.C. in the Kingdom of Syria. The king
decreed that all the people in his kingdom would be one in custom... one
in law... one in religion. The Jews are told they may no longer follow
Mosaic Law. If they did, they would die. A Jewish mother and her seven
sons are commanded to eat pork, which by Hebrew law is forbidden. They
refuse, so the king orders them to be put to death, slowly,
agonizingly. Each son suffers horribly, and the mother is forced to
look on, as each son perishes courageously. Each son faces up to the
king, and we see young men of profound faith and hope. The first one
says, "We will die rather than violate the law of our fathers. You can
kill us, but the King of the Universe will raise us up again." The
second son says, "God will raise me up, but you, oh king, will never
rise to life." All through this nightmare, the mother encourages each
son and says, "The God who shaped you will give life and breath back to
you." At the end of this horrific story, the final sentence is
surprisingly simple, moving in its simplicity. It reads, "Last of all,
the mother died after her sons." |
| What
does that amazing story of Hebrew faith have in common with today's
gospel? One word. Resurrection... We see one of the first signs in the
Old Testament of hope of resurrection and that is what Jesus is telling
the Sadducees. The Sadducees were a Jewish sect who did not believe in
life after death. In Luke's gospel, they ask Jesus a trick question
about heaven. Their question is asked in order to trap Jesus. They did
not really want an answer. Jesus tells them that they are mistaken not
to believe in the resurrection for two reasons: they do not understand
the power of God, and they do not understand the meaning of their own
scriptures.
|
| Then
Jesus shows them the promise of eternal life in the scriptures. When
God told Moses his own name, speaking from the burning bush, Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob had been dead for hundreds of years. Yet when God
said, "I AM the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, not I WAS the God of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." Jesus added, "He is not the God of the dead,
but of the living." Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were living in God's
presence at the time God spoke to Moses. The Sadducees refused to
believe their own scripture, refused to believe Jesus, the one who was
standing in front of them. |
| On
another occasion, Jesus said to the Pharisees, "You search the
scriptures because you think you can find eternal life in them. Yet,
they testify to me, but, you will not come to me to have life." What
irony. Like Pontius Pilate asking what is truth, while truth stood there
in front of him; the one who said, "I am the way, the truth and the
life, if you believe in me, you shall never die." For a thousand years,
or more, November has been the month when Christians, in a special way,
try to reflect on death and what comes after. I suspect, my friends,
that none of us shall ever want to die, not because our faith is infirm,
rather because there is so much to life. There are all kinds of death.
There is a dying inherent in growing older, as each year and every
illness and ache sap strength and vigor. There is a dying when plans do
not work out, or when business fails. There is a dying when parents
grown old, and they can no longer be the rocks on whom we can rely.
There is a dying when friendship is broken or ended. There is a dying
when divorce ends a marriage, and when a loved one dies. Their dying
tests our belief in the resurrection. And let's be truthful. It is hard
to be joyful about something we have never experienced, but death for
anyone who loves God can be their final act of faith. It is the last
affirmation of their belief in the tremendous truth that we find in the
Mass for the Dead. Life is not ended. It is merely changed. |
| Few
of us can be joyful about death, but if we are to believe Jesus, the
one who died for us, the one who rose for us, the one who is truth
itself, if we believe what He tells us, then it is not just pious
sentimentality to say that death is not an end, but a beginning. Forget
your questions about heaven. Why? Because things will be different.
Heaven will be different. All will be radically different. All will be
beyond our questions, beyond our imagination. Just as five hundred
years ago, our ancestor could not imagine an artificial heart, or a
computer or a television, so we cannot imagine heaven. Just as the
crawling homely caterpillar in its wildest dreams could not imagine that
it could fly as a gorgeously colored butterfly, Jesus is saying forget
all your categories, all your paradigms, all your preconceptions.
Heaven is beyond time, beyond experience, heaving is eternal life with
God. It is so different, so completely beyond our present thinking, so
spectacularly full and rich that no questions fit, no answers would be
understood, and so, only one thing really counts. |
| Only
one thing remains. Faith — a faith that does not come from knowing
whose wife the woman will be, or from knowing any details. It is a faith
that comes from believing Jesus, and trusting that when He says heaven
will be different, it will be different, and that He loves us beyond
measure and desires that all be saved. We are given no specifics, no
solutions, no answers, no picture postcards. Instead, we are called
simply to surrender. We surrender our questions, our difficulties and
our logical puzzles, in order to trust that God will handle things
better than we could ever imagine. We trust that God's love and care
for us will surpass all that we can ask or imagine. |
| When
all is said and done, when we think about heaven, we still come back to
St. Paul. He echoes Jesus when he says, "No eye has seen nor heard,
nor has it even entered into the heart of man what God has prepared for
those who love Him." That is what Jesus is really saying about heaven.
Case closed. |
| It
really does come down to this. Believe deeply that Jesus loves you,
and that love endures through time and eternity, and that the
curiosities about heaven will take care of themselves. Just be prepared
to be surprised at answers you never had questions for. |
|
 |
| Yours in Christ, |
 |
| Fr. Robert Warren, S.A. |
| Spiritual Director |
|
|
|
|
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment