Ordinary Time 32nd Sun C (Fr Edward)

Today’s readings invite us to meditate on the four last things: a simplified presentation of Eschatology, but nevertheless crucial for understanding the fullness of the Church’s teachings. The 4 last things are death, judgment, heaven, and hell. In particular, today’s Gospel focuses on the resurrection of the dead for the souls in heaven, and the first reading focuses on the impact that has on our deaths.

In the Gospel, Jesus is asked what is meant as a trick question by the Sadducees: a woman married 7 different brothers, which one is she married to after the resurrection of the dead? The Sadducees meant this as an attack on a position held by the Pharisees, a group which Jesus belonged to, since one of the central differences between the two was the Pharisees acknowledged a resurrection after death, whereas the Sadducees did not. In addition, the Sadducees only accepted the first five books of the Old Testament, so they would not have been impressed if Jesus quoted the first reading from Maccabees to them. Jesus instead responds by giving some information about the new creation, about the world to come: information about what heaven is like that is presented as a negation of what it is not.

What Jesus tells us about the resurrection of the dead, the ultimate fate of all human beings, is that it will not be like the current world. The resurrection of the dead doesn’t mean you get back your body exactly as it was when you died and pick up a normal, earthly life from there. Instead, the souls in heaven, completely purified and participating in the beatific vision, in the life of God, will receive bodies that are conformed to that life. They no longer marry, so there is no sense in asking which brother the woman of the question asked by the Sadducees was married to. They also don’t die, not in the sense of lingering on forever, but in the sense of participating in the life of God forever, in the eternal liturgy of praise for God. So, heaven is not just this world minus sin, but instead an entire transformation of our beings into children of God. Instead, the resurrected body will be modelled on the glorified body of Jesus Himself.

Jesus then gives evidence for this within the only books accepted by the Sadducees. In Exodus, when God reveals himself to Moses in the burning bush, God calls himself the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, indicating that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob continue to exist. Since God creates us and keeps us in existence, he is also able to keep our souls in existence after our deaths, and raise our bodies at the end of time to restore the soul to its natural state.

The implication that all of this has on our deaths is the subject of the first reading. The seven brothers and mother who were tortured and killed in order to force them to violate God’s commandment not to eat pork, face their deaths in faith because they know that there will be a resurrection from the dead: a new life in a renewed world, restored by God to its original purpose. They face their gruesome deaths in faith because death is not the final end it is portrayed to be. For us, Christ has conquered death, so we know that we, as well, can face our deaths in faith whenever they come to us.

There is also hint about hell in the first reading. The fourth brother tells his torturers "for you there will be no resurrection to life." This seems to be a rejection of eternal damnation but in fact, it is not. In both heaven and hell, the body will be restores, as Jesus indicates. However, the restoration of the body in hell is not truly a resurrection to life because the damned they have separated themselves from the love of God that enables life. As St Paul says second reading, "not all have faith." A number of images of eternal fire, and wailing and gnashing of teeth are used in the Gospels to describe the destiny of those who reject Christ, who fail to love God and their neighbors, but the key point is that they are not ultimately restored to the new creation because they have rejected God s merciful love, they have rejected God S grace. So, they have no resurrection of the dead in the sense that the resurrection involves restoration into the new Creation in Christ.

This brings us to the key turning point of the four last things, the judgment. This is not directly talked about during these readings, but is mentioned throughout the Bible. So what can we do in order to be judged as fit for the resurrection of the body? What can we do to die in confidence that God will restore us into His new creation in Christ? The answer, as always, is cooperating with the grace that God gives us to love God and our neighbor. This happens through the sacraments and through prayer that brings us deeper intimacy with God. This allows us, as St. Paul in the second reading has done, to hold to our mission, to direct our hearts to the love of God and to the endurance of Christ. Ultimately, when we approach death, God willing, we can say with St. Paul that we have won the race, and kept the faith. It is on that basis that we will ultimately be judged, and towards that basis that we must direct our lives.