Word to the Wise
Sunday, November 10, 2013 - 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time - C
[2 Macc 7:1-2, 9-14; 2 Thess 2:16-3:5; Luke 20:27-38 or 20:27, 34-38]That the dead will rise even Moses made known in the passage about the bush, when he called out "Lord," 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.
Three days ago, our priory celebrated the funeral of one of our members. From now on, at least on the anniversary of his death, he will be remembered when Dominican friars around the country read the "necrology," [list of all the deceased Dominican friars in the U.S.A.] and recite the "De Profundis" psalm [ps. 130]. He may be "deceased," but as he is alive for God, he is alive for us as well. He is more than a memory. This past Friday, we Dominicans also celebrated one of our three major "anniversaries" in which we recall deceased members of the Order. The other two are for parents and for benefactors. All of this is an affirmation of life and resurrection, even as we acknowledge the event of death which opens to new life in God.
The Sadducees did not believe in a resurrection from the dead because they did not think there was any reference to it in the first five books of the scriptures: the Torah [Pentateuch]. Since they were very much allied with the aristocratic element in Jerusalem, their question is as much political as it is theological and absurd. Jesus is more than a match for them because he refers to the way in which God speaks from the burning bush [Ex. 3:6] and speaks of being the "God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob," as if they are alive! Since the Book of Exodus is one of the books in the Torah, the Sadducees are refuted! But the story, for us, does not stop there.
We have to go back to the beginning of the passage and read the fascinating words of Jesus in referring not just to people who are married at the time of their death, but to all of us! "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." Death, like baptism, is a one-time event that leads to new life. I suggest we no longer say that we remember the "dead," but rather, "those who live now in God!" We have a living memory of those living in God - a true communion of saints! AMEN
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