“SEEDS OF LIFE”
Sunday, 6th November 2016.
Thirty Second Week of Ordinary Time
2 Maccabees 7:1-2, 9-14;
Psalm 16: 1, 5-6, 8, 15;
2 Thessalonians 2:16-3:5;
Luke 20:27-38.
HEAVEN BOUND!
In today’s Gospel we see the Sadducees trying to trap Jesus with a question about marriage and the Afterlife. This follows the episode of the Pharisees trying to trap Jesus by raising a question about paying taxes to the Caesar. Jesus however tackles both the situations with much ease.
The Sadducees were a religious sect within the Jewish community. They were different from Pharisees as they accepted only the first 5 books of the Bible (Torah) and did not believe in notions like angels, after-life etc. Looking to play the trick on Jesus they raise a hypothetical story about a woman and the 7 brothers who marry her one after the other so as to keep the Jewish Levirate Law which said that a man must marry the childless widow of his brother. The question is, whose wife will that women be in the afterlife?
The reply of Jesus has two parts: first, the philosophical explanation of afterlife and second, the substantiation of his idea from Torah (because the Sadducees believed only in Torah). In the First part of Jesus’ reply, he distinguishes between status of life in this world (earth) and other world (heaven) in order to rectify the gross misconception of the Sadducees. The Sadducees in their argument against the belief in resurrection had projected the life of man upon earth into the life in heaven, they thought that if there is afterlife then the marriage here on earth must be continued in heaven too. Jesus counter-argues placing two points:“they do not marry because they no longer die” – Jesus here tries to tell that marriage is required here on earth because we are mortals and existence here is finite. Therefore, marriage is an important institution through which human race has been sustaining. But in the afterlife we no longer die and therefore Jesus asserts that there is no marriage in the afterlife. “for they are the same as the angels” – After death we no longer possess the material body which in fact is inclined to earthly carnal desires rather we are resurrected as a spiritual body (like that of angels) thus being free from all material inclinations. Therefore, there is no need of marriage in the afterlife.
In the second part Jesus presents scriptural proof from the book of Exodus where we find the encounter of Moses with God in the burning bush. Jesus must have chosen from this book precisely because the Sadducees believed only in Torah. Sadducees believed in patriarchs like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - whose names Moses pronounced at Mt. Sinai. Jesus then asserted that since God is “not of the dead, but of the living”, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob must be living even after their death. By formulating this syllogism from the scripture Jesus almost silenced the Sadducees, as it is written in the book of Proverbs 26:27 – “Whoever digs a pit, will fall into it”. The Sadducees had dug a pit to trap Jesus but had now themselves fallen into it.
We have a parallel scene in today’s first reading from the second book of Maccabees where we here about the martyrdom of the 7 Jewish brothers for not giving up their faith. These 7 willfully give their life while proclaiming their faith in resurrection – one among them cries out, “we shall be raised up by him”. We often speak about this earthly life to be worth living for but here is the staunch faith of these 7 brothers who teach us that the eternal life which we are going to inherit is indeed worth dying for. This story of the martyrdom of these 7 brothers gives us hope that we too may proclaim like them, “we die, to live again forever”. Indeed, for our limited minds afterlife will always be an unsolved riddle. We many a times doubt and hinder when we think of resurrection and afterlife, being humans it is evident as also was the state of disciples after the death of Jesus. But what they held onto was ‘hope’ and it is the same thing that we too must hold onto. So filled with this faith and hope let us believe in what Jesus said to us – “I am going to prepare a place for you”, for when he said it he really meant it.
As we are marching towards the closing of the Year of Mercy we are called to carry forward this message of afterlife. But how? We already are aware of the various corporal works of mercy that the pope has asked us to focus upon, some of which are feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and prisoners, helping the poor etc. Our belief in afterlife strengthens in us the virtue of hope and by doing the corporal works of mercy we are going to offer the very same hope to these who have lost it.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, May I be a messenger of Hope to my brothers and sisters, especially those who are suffering. Amen