The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite us to contemplate images from our meditation on death and resurrection.
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| Changed not ended |
The passage from the Second Book of Maccabees describes the confidence of seven brothers in resurrection after martyrdom.
* [7:9] The King of the universe will raise us up: here, and in vv. 11, 14, 23, 29, 36, belief in the future resurrection of the body, at least for the just, is clearly stated; cf. also 12:44; 14:46; Dn 12:2.1
Psalm 17 is a prayer for deliverance from persecutors.
* [17:8] Apple of your eye and shadow of your wings: images of God’s special care, cf. Dt 32:10; Prv 7:2; Is 49:2.2
The reading from Paul’s Second Letter to the Thessalonians contains a request for prayers and an affirmation of the support of God in persecution.
* [3:1–18] The final chapter urges the Thessalonians to pray for Paul and his colleagues (2 Thes 3:1–2) and reiterates confidence in the Thessalonians (2 Thes 3:3–5), while admonishing them about a specific problem in their community that has grown out of the intense eschatological speculation, namely, not to work but to become instead disorderly busybodies (2 Thes 3:6–15).
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus addresses a question about the Resurrection from Sadducees who are attempting to trap Him.
* [20:28–33] The Sadducees’ question, based on the law of levirate marriage recorded in Dt 25:5–10, ridicules the idea of the resurrection. Jesus rejects their naive understanding of the resurrection (Lk 20:35–36) and then argues on behalf of the resurrection of the dead on the basis of the written law (Lk 20:37–38) that the Sadducees accept. See also notes on Mt 22:23–33.4
Mary Lee Brock decided to give herself some space and time to spend with the readings in the tradition of Lectio Divina.
Initially my prayer felt empty with all of the gloom and doom. But as I spent more time with the text I became open to the messages of faith and resurrection. Several phrases resonate with me. One of brothers being tortured expresses his abiding faith by exclaiming: The King of the world will raise us up to live again forever. Paul reminds us that we may be delivered from perverse and wicked people… as the Lord will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one. The gospel today concludes with these powerful words: he is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him we are all alive.5
Don Schwager quotes “Jesus cites Moses to affirm the resurrection,” by Cyril of Alexandria (376-444 AD).
"The Savior also demonstrated the great ignorance of the Sadducees by bringing forward their own leader Moses, who was clearly acquainted with the resurrection of the dead. He set God before us saying in the bush, 'I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob' (Exodus 3:6). Of whom is he God, if, according to their argument, these have ceased to live? He is the God of the living. They certainly will rise when his almighty right hand brings them and all that are on the earth there. For people not to believe that this will happen is worthy perhaps of the ignorance of the Sadducees, but it is altogether unworthy of those who love Christ. We believe in him who says, 'I am the resurrection and the life' (John 11:25). He will raise the dead suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye, and at the last trumpet. It shall sound, the dead in Christ shall rise incorruptible, and we shall be changed (1 Corinthians 15:52). For Christ our common Savior will transfer us into incorruption, glory and to an incorruptible life." (excerpt from COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 136)6
The Word Among Us Meditation on Luke 20:27-38 comments that Jesus, quoting from the Law of Moses, said that God would not call himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob unless these patriarchs were also living (Exodus 3:6). He is God of the living, “for to him all are alive” (Luke 20:38).
This is indeed good news! Even though we will all one day experience physical death, we will still be alive to God. How could we not be? At our baptism, the immortal and eternal God came to live in us. When we are striving to live our faith, not even death can separate us from God. Someday, when Jesus comes again, he will raise our bodies to new life as well.7
Friar Jude Winkler explains the connection of the Sadducees religious belief to the Pentatuch and to the practice of Levirate marriage. Thessalonians are encouraged by faith and made aware that the end time may not be imminent. Friar Jude reminds us that end time reflection should encourage us to be ready.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, comments that we are often surprised to learn that a deeper awareness or clearer vision is actually only “new” to us and considered “old” by others. His friends John Dominic Crossan and Sarah Sexton Crossan have uncovered this for us with their extensive research on how Christ’s resurrection is portrayed in Western and Eastern Christian art or icons. [1]
The resurrection is not a one-time miracle that proved Jesus was God. Jesus’ death and resurrection name and reveal what is happening everywhere and all the time in God and in everything God creates. Reality is always moving toward resurrection. As prayers of the Catholic funeral Mass affirm, “Life is not ended but merely changed.” Jesus’ incarnate life, his passing over into death, and his resurrection into the ongoing Christ life is the archetypal model for the entire pattern of creation—which Eastern Orthodox artists help us to visualize. Jesus is the microcosm for the whole cosmos. As in him, so also in all of us. As in all of us, so also in him.8
The God of the living is known by those who have died. We contemplate this mystery in anticipation of following Jesus to the next stage.
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