Readings: 2 Maccabees 7:1-2, 7, 9-14; 2 Thes.2:16 – 3:5; Lk 20:27-38
Death Is a Change of Life
1. In the Preface for Christian death, we pray: “Lord, for your faithful people, life is changed, not ended. When the body of our earthly dwelling lies in death, we gain an everlasting dwelling place in heaven.” Death is a change of life. It is the pathway that brings us to our final destination with God. Our faith is founded on the resurrection of Christ. His resurrection guarantees that those who died in Christ will be raised on the last day. St. Paul tells us: “If there is no resurrection of the dead, Christ himself cannot have been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is useless, and your believing it is useless. If our hope in Christ has been for this life only, we are the most unfortunate people.” (1 Cor.15:14-19). Many Christians suffered martyrdom in this world because they hoped to live forever with God. Christians see their death as a transition to a life of grace with their creator.
2. People believed in the resurrection from the dead long before Christ. The hope of the resurrection is portrayed in the first reading from the Book of Maccabees. During the reign of the Greek king Antiochus IV, a law was promulgated that made it a crime, punishable by death, for the Jews to practice their religion. Circumcision was forbidden, and copies of the law were burned. They were prevented from following their dietary laws and were not allowed to celebrate their feasts. They were mandated to worship and offer sacrifices to the Greek gods and goddesses. This brought great distress and persecution to the Jews. Many derailed and offered sacrifices to the pagan gods; they stopped circumcising their sons and ate pork, which was forbidden by law. Those who disobeyed the king and held on to their faith were put to death.
3. The book of Maccabees documents those terrible times and the struggle the Jews went through to remain faithful to God in the face of egregious persecution and distress. In the first reading, we heard of the torture of a heroic woman and her seven sons. They held on to God and refused to obey the king. Their hope was in the resurrection of the righteous. Listen to what they said to their persecutors: “We are prepared to die rather than break the laws of our ancestors.” (2 Macc.7:2). “You may discharge us from this present life, but the king of the world will raise us up since it is for his laws that we die to live again forever.” “It was heaven that gave me these limbs; for the sake of his laws, I disdain them; I hope to receive them from him again.” The mother encouraged her dying sons to be courageous in the face of death in these words; “Prove yourself of your brothers, and make death welcome, so that in the day of mercy I may receive you back in your brothers’ company.” The woman and her sons preferred death to a life of shame. St. Paul reminded us, “And if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, then he who raised Jesus from the dead will give life to your own mortal bodies through his Spirit living in you.” (Rom. 8:11).
4. In the Gospel, the Sadducees questioned Jesus on the resurrection. This was a group of a rich religious set, like the Pharisees. But unlike the Pharisees, they did not believe in the resurrection from the dead, angels, or spirits. They confronted Jesus with a levirate law argument that states that if a man dies childless, his brother must marry the widow and raise children for the brother (Deut. 25:5). With this law, they demonstrated how ridiculous the concept of the resurrection was. Since seven brothers married a woman and died childless and the woman also died, at the resurrection, who will her husband be? Jesus explained to them that the life of the resurrection would not be the same as life on earth. We will be like angels. There will be no need for procreation. Jesus reminded them of what God said to Moses at the burning bush, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God Jacob.” (Exodus 3:1-6). God is God of the living and not the dead. Though Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were dead, they are alive with God.
5. Christ stressed, in His answer to the Sadducees, that marriage and procreation are only for this life and not in the life of heaven. Whether married or single, our devotion to God and our service to one another matter. St. Paul prays in today’s second reading, “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 strengthen them in every good deed and word.” We are men and women of the resurrection: our homeland is heaven, where God our Father dwells. Since heaven is our final home, and we can only get there after our life on earth, let us do what St. Paul tells us to. “If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Think of what is above, not what is on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory.” (Col. 3:1-4). May our departed brothers and sisters find peace with God in heaven.
Rev. Augustine Etemma Inwang, MSP
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