32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2016

2 Maccabees 7:1-2, 9-14; 2 Thessalonians 2:16-3:5; Lk 20:27-38
What are you doing or Ready to Do for the Salvation of your Soul?

“An unexamined life is not worth living,” says Socrates. Roman Catholic liturgical circle takes seriously this saying of Socrates, so she devotes time to the examination or thinking about human life, not just terrestrial life, which is the subject of examination by Socrates, the Catholic Church explores what will happen to human life after its departure from this mundane world; she does this to prepare for life beyond this material world. De novissimis – the last things – instead of a literal translation – the new things – is that area of theology which teaches about the end of human life or the theology of hope of what life hereafter will be. But before we talk about the end, we need to know about the beginning, the question of how things came about and the purpose behind creation itself.

Thomas Aquinas captures well the Christian logic of life. He explains life in a simple expression – exire et redire (to go out and to return back). In Aquinas’ thinking, life originated or came out from God, and it has to return to God. Between the going out (of life) and returning back to God, is the period we call a life-time, this particular moment which you and I, the living, are enjoying. In a Liturgical Language, we call it Ordinary Time, a period which lasts 34 weeks. This Sunday is already the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, which means that we we’ve got two more weeks to go before Ordinary Time comes to an end. If we understand this concept of human life as “going out and returning back to God,” then the statement of our first reading, “It was from Heaven that I received these (tongue and hands); for the sake of his laws I disdain them; from him I hope to receive them again,” begins to make both Christian and theological sense. In a nutshell, as the liturgical year draws to an end, our readings draw our attention to the four last things: death, judgment, hell or heaven. Today, “death” is our subject matter.

How am I living my life here and now? Do I live with the consciousness that my life is a gift from God and it has to return to God at death? Today’s readings provide us with answers to these questions on how a Christian’s life is to be lived on earth, before death. If in the past weeks we basked in the shadows of a merciful God, indeed, we’ve been basking in the euphoria of the Year of Mercy, it is high time we woke up to the reality that life is NOT worth living in SIN. Our first reading shows how seven brothers preferred to return to be with God forever, that is, they willingly accepted death, instead of commit a single sin – eat pork. This teaches us about the odiousness and magnitude of sin, for a person who has realized the power of love which still nails Jesus to the Cross of Calvary in order to offer life to human beings. In the logic of our first reading, it is better to die, than to commit sin!

It is good to put our first reading in perspective: the problem is not just whether it is right to eat pork or not. “Pork” is just a bait, the problem goes deeper. The real question is, who is the author of life, who determines what happens to it (life)? Pay attention to what one of the seven brothers said, in our first reading: “you are depriving us of this present life, but the King of the world will raise us up to live again forever. It is for his laws that we are dying.” The seven brothers challenged the right of the king to transform himself into a god who determines who lives and who dies! Their understanding of “death” is the death of the soul, when God condemns it to hell, they cared less about physical death. This situation is comparable to our modern perspective on abortion. The question of abortion is not whether a woman has a right over her body or not, but whether human beings have the right to take the life they never created! In our world of “pro choice,” here is what a Christian choice looks like, in the statement of the fourth of the seven brothers of our first reading: “It is my choice to die at the hands of men with the hope God gives of being raised up by him.” Yes, like Christ, a Christian gives his life, instead of take any life at all.

For a Christian, life is worth living as long as it gives glory to God. The decision to say that life is not worth living, as the seven brothers of our first reading did, is made when the glory of God is at stake. Remember, this is earthly life, which will come to an end at some point, while life hereafter is eternal. Christians spend their lives on earth in preparation for eternal life. It is the hope and conviction that there is an after-life that makes possible the desire to forsake this present life for eternal life.

Attachment to earthly life is a big hindrance and threat to the reality of heaven. This threat is underscored by our gospel reading – marriage and children are important but not indispensable. “Jesus said to them, ‘The children of this age marry and remarry; but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. They can no longer die, for they are like angels; and they are the children of God.” The Jews thought that longevity is assured through one’s progenies, hence, the need to have children by crook or by hook. Jesus did not buy that idea. On the contrary, Jesus emphasizes the importance of eternal life over mundane life. Jesus didn’t denigrate our physical existence, but made our present physical existence a preparation for our eternal existence as angels of God.

Faced with challenges to our faith, like the command to eat pork, in the first reading, like the cancer of “pro choice” in the United States and other Western nations, our second reading provides us with a solution – the power of prayer to gain the grace and stamina to remain faithful to God’s commandments, and to emphasize the paramount importance of eternal life over temporary consolation on earth. Here is part of Paul’s request: “brothers and sisters, pray for us, . . . that we may be delivered from perverse and wicked people, for not all have faith.”

Confronted by all kinds of extremist killings, a true Christian goes to his death joyously because the power of evil will never triumph over the grace of God in those who choose to die rather than kill. Paul expresses his absolute conviction that God’s grace is sufficient for prayerful Christians when he says: “But the Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one.” Paul concludes with two indispensable virtues, when Christians are going through tough times – love and perseverance/endurance: “May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the endurance of Christ.”

When you and I can love our enemies and persecutors; when we endure contradictions and misunderstanding joyously; when we hate and run away from sin and occasions of sin; these show the reality and authenticity of our Christianity as well as our determination to win eternal life hereafter.

Assignment for this week:
Choose a weakness of yours and do your best not to commit it this week.