32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time - November 10th, 2013 Readings: 2 Maccabees 7:1-2, 9-14; Psalm 17:1,5-6,8,15; 2 Thessalonians 2:16-3:5; Luke 20:27-38 by Fr. Douglas M. Vu Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, 1. This past weekend, the universal Church celebrates the Solemnity of All Saints on Friday and All Souls on Saturday. On Wednesday, our parish comes together to remember and pray for all the faithful departed of our parish who passed away this past year. Today, we remember and pray for Father Michael J. White. This Saturday is Father Whites 90th birthday. May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace. 2. Regis Martin in his book, The Last Things, writes that there was once a learned and resourceful professor of theology, armed with many degrees, who delivered a long and tedious lecture on Heaven.... Excessively painful as it was, however, the ordeal ended with the learned professors happy disclaimer that, of course, nothing he had said on the subject - heaven - was to be confused with the thing itself. Heaven, the professor confessed brightly, is certain to be infinitely more delightful than anything he might laboriously work up in attempting to throw light on Mans Last End. Martin concludes that none of us have been there, nor have we ever spoken to anyone who has. Todays readings invite us to reflect on the mysteries of heaven and life after death. 3. The questions as to whether there is a life after death and what happens to us when we died are among the oldest questions that have been asked by men and women of different cultures and religions throughout the ages. The scholars who are looking for traces of the primeval human beings say that they are certainly concerned with discoveries about humans, and not animal remains, if burial gifts are discovered. The belief is that only humans burry their dead; animals do not. So anyone who buries the dead is thereby giving an expression to the belief that death is not the end of everything (cf. Cardinal Christoph Schonborn, Jesus The Divine Physician, 151-3). 4. In the former East Germany, dominated by decades of Communism and by state atheism, many dead people are not buried, but are simply disposed of. The belief is that if there is no eternal God, why bother with funerals. To remember the dead? That is one reason for having graves. But is a memorial picture not enough? (cf. Cardinal Christoph Schonborn, Jesus The Divine Physician, 151-3). Our Christian faith is different. We believe in the promise of the eternal life as we solemnly profess in the Creed at every Sunday Mass and Solemnity Mass: I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come (Roman Missal, The Profession of Faith). 5. In Lukes Gospel we just heard a moment ago where the Sadducees - Sad-You-See, the Sadducees dont believe in the resurrection, and they posed the question to Jesus if a woman, who has been married to seven brothers, in heaven, whose wife will that woman be? Jesus reply to the Sadducees - in heaven, that woman will not be given in marriage. Jesus reply to the Sadducees is a simple one, yet, it does demand faith. Our human knowledge is limited and only extend insofar to the concern of this life. In the life to come, things are different. Since you and I are only know this life, it is hard for us to imagine what the life after death will be. Here we are in time, and there in eternity (cf. Cardinal Christoph Schonborn, Jesus The Divine Physician, 151-3). In his second Letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul tells us that this life is change, but the life of the after is eternal: For this momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to what is seen but to what is unseen; for what is seen is transitory, but what is unseen is eternal(2 Cor 4:17-18). 6. Here on earth, we need temporal things to support our earthly life, things such as: food, housing, employment, recreation, marriage, marital life, conception, birth, and death. We need these so that the human race will continue from one generation to the next. In the life after, it will be different. Jesus tells us in todays Gospel that in heaven there is no death: They can no longer die, for they are like angels; and they are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise (Lk 20:36). Jesus said that in heaven the children of God neither marry nor are given in marriage (cf. Lk 20:35). What will it be like in heaven? We dont know. None of us have been in heaven. Nor anyone of us have met anyone from heaven? We can only believe in the resurrection. We cannot prove it! 7. In a very moving, personal reflection on his imminent death in 1996, the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago wrote the book “The Gift of Peace” several weeks before going to God. At the end of his personal testament he wrote: “Many people have asked me to tell them about heaven and the afterlife. I sometimes smile at the request because I do not know any more than they do. Yet, when one young man asked if I looked forward to being united with God and all those who have gone before me, I made a connection to something I said earlier in this book. The first time I traveled with my mother and sister to my parents’ homeland of Tonadico di Primiero, in northern Italy, I felt as if I had been there before. After years of looking through my mother’s photo albums, I knew the mountains, the land, the houses, the people. As soon as we entered the valley, I said, “My God, I know this place. I am home.” Somehow I think crossing from this life into eternal life will be similar. I will be home.” 8. The month of November is the month of remembrance. This Sunday, we remember Father White. We pray for him and all the faithful departed whose names are placed on the Altar and written in our parishs Book of Remembrance. We also remember men and women who have died for our freedom on Veteran Day on Monday. Let us live our Christian faith with enduring hope as Jesus tells us: The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive (Lk 20:37-38). Let us spend our earthly pilgrimage filling our minds with the thoughts of heaven, so that when we finally cross over into eternal life, the images we see may not be foreign, startling or strange. Let us sing with the Psalmist in thanksgiving to God for our hope: Lord, when your glory appears, my joy will be full (Ps 17:1, 5-6, 8, 15).
Posted on: Sun, 10 Nov 2013 18:48:17 +0000
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