THIRTY SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
2 Maccabees 7: 1-2,
9-14|2 Thessalonians 2: 16-3: 5|Luke 20:27-38
“He is not God of the dead, but of the living (20:38)
Dear
Brothers and Sisters in Jesus Christ,
In the
introduction, I mentioned that we are near the end of the church liturgical
year and in the couple of weeks after, we will begin a new liturgical year with
the Advent. So, these last days of our liturgical season, we will be focusing
to reflect on the end times: what will happen after my life here on earth? I
think it is also appropriate to reflect on those questions in the month of November,
since we remember them during this time.
Why do we
want to speak about Resurrection in our Christian life? Or more specifically, why
should I believe in heaven?
St. John
Chrysostom, the Patriarch of Constantinople of 3rd century gives us
a wonderful observation on the theme. He observes: “In everything or deed the
driving force of one acting is hope of future reward. For the person who plows
is plowing for the sake of a harvest. And a person who fights is fighting for
the sake of a victory. So take away the hope of resurrection then the
observances of piety has been damaged”[1]
I think along with Chrysostom, it is wonderful to reflect our attitude towards
the life after death. Cardinal Shöenborn, a Contemporary theologian and the Archbishop of Vienna,
Austria, recently attributed the declining
influence of Christianity to the decline in our awareness on our life after death. He argues that
since so many modern Christians don't take seriously the Last Things (death, judgment, heaven and
hell) we are less dynamic,
less purposeful, less committed to doing great things for Christ, the
Church, and the world. He notices that “Something very strange has taken place in recent years: Christians have lost touch with heaven.
“Of the desire for heaven, our ‘heavenly home,' we hear hardly these phrases now. "It is
as if Christians have lost the
orientation that for centuries defined the direction of our
journey. We have forgotten that
we are pilgrims and
that the goal of our
pilgrimage is heaven. But now, we do not long for heaven; we take it for granted that we will get there. This analysis may
be exaggerated, but I am afraid it is essentially true." The thought about
our resurrection will give us the strength to face the challenges not only in
our spiritual life but also our daily burdens. [2]
When we are sure about our
destination, we tune all our actions in conformity to the end. Sometimes I
wonder about one of our saintly friar, St. Maximilian Kolbe whose 75th
anniversary of his Martyrdom, we celebrate this year. What was the driving
force that helped him to face the challenges of his life? He was a brilliant young scholar who
earned his first PhD by the time he was 21.During his seminary years, he studied science on the side, and was even
designing space travel mechanisms long
before World War II. As a young
priest, he put his notable talents to work by beginning an Apostolate
called the Knights of the
Immaculata, dedicated to spreading the Gospel through mass media. When the Nazis conquered
his native Poland at the start of World War II, St Kolbe's publications strongly denounced Nazi errors and Crimes.
And so the saint found himself arrested, threatened, released,
and, when he continued to publish criticism
of the Nazi regime, arrested again.
This time he was sent to forced
labor at the Auschwitz concentration
camp. To be able to help his fellow
prisoners, he publicly acknowledged that he was a Catholic priest. As a result, he
received special treatment from
the guards: beatings, attacks by dogs, the dirtiest and heaviest work, the
carrying of the corpses... Through it all, he kept encouraging his friends. He told them: "No, they will not kill our souls... They will
not be able to deprive us of the
dignity of being a Catholic. We will not give up. And when we die, then we die pure and peaceful, resigned to God in
our hearts." Eventually, he offered
his own life in substitution for
a young man who had been randomly chosen for execution.[3] Maximilian knew very well
that his destination is not here on earth. There is a heaven above in which he
will have a vision of God face to face.
Dear Brothers and Sisters, I
totally understand that it is not fashionable to use the terms such as heaven,
life after death, beatific vision, eternity etc. Since it is not sounding
meaningful to us, what we do? We eliminate those words from our spiritual dictionary.
I see it as a dangerous move in our spiritual path. Can anyone eliminate words
such as love, sorry, care, help, friendship etc. from our life dictionary? I
think no one can. Because our life is based on those words. In the same way, we can never eliminate the
word heaven and eternity from our collection of spiritual vocabularies. Because
these words coins our self, our identity, our faith and our destination.
May we have the courage to reaffirm
our destination which gives the meaning of our life here on earth.
Friar Tony Vattaparambil
[1] Bonaventure. (2004). Commentary on the Gospel of Luke.
In r. J. Karris, Works of St. Bonavneture (pp. 1789-1807). St.
Bonaventure, NY: Franciscan Institute Publication. 1939
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