11.11.2007 - 32nd Sunday O.T. - year
C
First Reading: 2 Mac 7,1-2.9-14 Psalm 16
Second Reading: 2 Thess 2,16-3,5 Gospel Reading: Luke 20,27-38
Our path to holiness is never-ending. When we think about it, we should not expect great events or try and find miraculous solutions or sensational happenings. God made us small and gave us days according to our strength. And it is during these days often all the same that we carry the holiness of God! It is with small gestures and obedience in little things that we build up a life which shines with the beauty of the Father and the love of the Son! Even the great saints give us an example of lives lived for God in the passing of days which are all the same and seemingly monotonous. They did not live them as monotonous because every moment was an offering of love. This is possible for everyone, myself included. To make every moment an offer of love is possible to the women who clean at home, who look after their children, who go to the office; it is possible to the men who drive their cars or lorries, who wield a pen or spade, who work at their computer or who serve in a café. To make of every moment an offering of love is possible for children and for young people talking to their friends, for old people looking for someone who will listen to them or go and visit them. Someone called these little acts of love "daily martyrdom", because it is through these little acts tinged with the love of God that we give credible testimony to our Father and to our Lord Jesus! It is through these little acts of love that we put up with the people who never do anything to improve their defects and through these acts we can pour out the grace which comes from heaven! This is the holiness or enlightenment to which we aspire, small and hidden from everyone and yet rich with fruits for everyone!
The main topic today is faith in the resurrection. We believe that God is God
and that nothing is above him, not even death. God did not create man to die,
but to live! And all the people created by him, live for him! Thus concludes
Jesus in his reply to the Sadducees who had tried to trick him . They were the
rich in Jerusalem who insisted that the word of God could only be found in the
first five books of the Scriptures, the Pentateuch and they certainly see eye
to eye with our contempories. In what way? Today people say "we no longer
see anyone after they die, therefore, everything finishes with death."
It is the typical reasoning of the rich (and those who want to be rich) who
have to justify their greed, their blindness in not seeing the poor or any evident
injustice. "Since death is the end of everything, it is better to live
as best you can". And the word "best" contains within it the
many forms of egoism necessary to create entertainments and pleasures. These
were the Sadducees, these are our friends, young and adult, and so too, are
we very often and although we consider ourselves believers, we live as if death
were the worst thing possible.
Jesus spoke of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob as if they were still alive just
as the Scriptures speak. God saved his people out of love for Abraham; his promises
to Abraham were forever. If Abraham no longer existed, God's promises would
no longer be valid. How can we think that our lives will end with death? Hasn't
God overcome Death? If this were not true, death would be our God and the fear
of death our Guide. He who uses death as a wage wishes to enslave us and he
succeeds if we adore death. He is God's enemy, the Adversary who tries to force
us to obey him through the use of fear, the fear of death. But we know that
we will live forever because our lives are in the hands of God and we will not
be frightened; we are and we will be like the seven sons of the faithful, courageous
woman who succeeded in transmitting the fear of God to her children. Being certain
that life was a gift of God, they were not afraid of death or of suffering.
They preferred death to abandoning the God of life.
We are part of the school of Jesus and live with him. He is always persecuted
in the world and we live with him. He is rejected by those who consider themselves
intelligent and we live with him. He is derided by our leaders and we live with
him. He is ignored by those who make the decide and we live with him. He is
ignored by those who write and those who lecture and we live with him. We live
with him because we know that through him we will live and no threat or injustice
can take from us that life that God has given us after this one is over.
Perhaps it is not entirely true that we are always united with Jesus in all
these situations, but this is what we desire and pray for. We pray to God for
perseverance and the Father will give it to us because he also desires it for
us and wants us to be united with his Son in the true and eternal Life which
pours from his heart, the spring of Life! The Life which is the Son of God,
is a life which even the angels do not know and we will inherit it! This life
will be our greatest joy when we see that those we love will also receive it!