Thirty-Second Week in Ordinary Time C

Saturday November 6, 2004

Life is More than the Eye Can See

From time to time, I receive a distress call from a troubled mother or father whose child is experiencing a great deal of anxiety about death. Loving parents need to be sensitive to the fears of their children and very attentive but prudent in their response to questions about life and death. Children’s anxieties can be occasioned by the death of a close family member or family friend. However, it is not unusual for children to experience unusual sadness over the death of a pet. Some children are more sensitive than others and we need to be adept at reading the signs lest we over react on one hand or under react on the other. Simple stories are always helpful and there is an abundance of children’s literature dealing with this issue. Telling children that God has taken a loved one “to a better place” is often simplistic and not very helpful. Their quick retort, “Why, what’s wrong with this place?” is appropriate. On a beautiful day like today, who wants to go to “a better place” that we have never seen!

However, children are not alone in their fear about death. We adults have our own anxieties about death that often shape our view of life. I suppose it is accurate to say that we go through phases and stages during which we become preoccupied not so much about the fact but about the “how” and the “when.” In fact, we may be much more concerned more about the ‘how’ then the ‘when.’ As with children, these thoughts are usually occasioned by the illness or death of a loved one or triggered by our own illness and our experience of the aging process. We all want to live forever, of course!

The Scripture lessons for this weekend provide a mixture of drama and cartoon both of which stretch our imagination, drawing us into another level of understanding about what Scripture scholars call “the end times,” and what Christian theologians and spiritual writers call “the last things.” They bring to mind the “Left Behind” series on the global chaos connected with the ‘Rapture.’ I read the first of the series and while it was gripping, the end was just the beginning; no, not of eternal life but of the next book in a long series of books guaranteed to sell a few million more copies. It’s amazing how much money can be made on weak theology!

At any rate, the gruesome martyrdom of the seven brothers in the Book of Maccabees dramatizes the incredible strength of faith that motivated their loyalty to God. They could not submit to any earthly power that might jeopardize their commitment to their ancestral faith. Please note the progression in thought with each successive exchange between the brothers, their mother and the Greek king, Antiochus Epiphanes IV. The story moves from the expression of God’s compassion for the suffering of his people to the expression of certitude that God’s justice will prevail. The righteous will be rewarded and the recalcitrant will be doomed. It’s a hero story, to be sure, which was written to inspire Jews of a later epoch who were into the ‘new age’ philosophy of Alexander the Great. The author of Maccabees intends to support a kind of a spiritual resistance movement against the prevailing materialism of the Greek culture during the third century before Christ. However, the message moves far beyond resistance to the bright promise of resurrection. There is more to life than what meets the eyes, ears, hands, and lips. “Eye has not seen or ears heard what God has prepared for those who remain faithful.”

The gospel story presented by Luke seems a bit preposterous, to be sure. However, it may be helpful to know that this is a biblical cartoon. Cartoons are often humorous and even ridiculous but do contain important lessons. In this case, Jesus is addressing himself to the Sadduccees who did not believe in the resurrection. The Sadduccees enjoyed the favor of Rome and had no reason to look beyond the grave. The Pharisees, on the other hand, were concerned not with material wealth but with the life of the Spirit. More than likely, Jesus was of the Pharisaic tradition. (Not all Pharisees were legalistic, mind you.) In any event, the encounter with the Sadduccees seems amusing if not silly. However, Luke was making the point that resurrection is not resuscitation or a continuation of earthly life. It is a complete transformation of life but on a continuum. Death is a passage to immortality. Christians believe that the gift of immortality is given at Baptism. Jesus was not disparaging marriage but emphasizing the fact that life is more than the physical. Although marriage is a physical relationship in which husband and wife experience the joy of physical union, it is also a partnership of souls oriented toward the life of the spirit. Wives and husbands are soul partners moving toward a full life in Christ in the next life in which “there is no male or female, Jew or Greek, slave or freeperson; “all are one in Christ,” united with God forever.

During this time of transition between the first coming and the second coming, we would do well not to get rattled about raptures and revivals of wild stories about the afterlife. Heaven, hell and purgatory are not places but states of being, theological but in adequate explanations to explain the ultimate resolution of good and evil in this world. There is no theologian or poet who can make complete sense out of anything but ultimate goodness despite the badness that exists in the world and in the human heart.

Soon Advent will be coming and the mood will change from the clouds of November to the violet blue expectation of Christ’s second coming. If Advent works, then we will keep its spirit alive throughout the year in anticipation of Christ’s unexpected appearances on this earth in human form, that is, in those who call themselves Christian.

Then we will celebrate the Birth of Christ not only as a past event but as an ongoing event and we will be charged to keep the spirit of Christmas alive throughout the year.

We come together each Sunday to absorb the mystery of God’s presence here and now so that when the end comes, our passage will be smooth and our worries few.

We are here only for a short time but let us not be preoccupied with the obstacles to life but with life itself. “God is not the God of the dead but of the living. All are alive for him.” Amen.

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