32nd SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
2Thessalonians
Luke
"Those who are deemed worthy
to the resurrection…
neither marry nor are given in marriage.”
Including today, only three Sundays are left and we end this year's liturgical cycle. That is why our liturgy is also prepared and set to enable us to meditate on the important things regarding the end time. Today's theme is focused on the resurrection. The question on life after death is important and is always relevant. While vivid to man's experience is the seeming finality of death, no one can just take from man's innermost being the hunger and longing for something more beyond the grave. This paradox has continually puzzled humanity. Thus, it is said that that religion which offers answers to questions about life beyond the grave must be the greatest.
1. The doctrine on the resurrection is a trademark of Christianity. In fact, it is one of the articles of our faith. Among the important points about this teaching, today's gospel outlines the following:
a. Life-after-death means immortality. Indeed, there must be once or twice or many times in our lives when we question our existence. Questions like why we are born, why we live and suffer, why we laugh and cry, why we dream and die, etc., seem ordinary and their answers are ready-made. But actually, these are the real questions which pose like a riddle to man. And what makes it graver is the fact that these questions are endless. They seem to end only with death.
But do they really end with death? It seems not. The
very fact that they are endless suggests that they don't. On the first place,
man of every age, simple and wise, would have not labored so much to find answers
to these questions if they were simply to vanish with death. Such endless
aspirations must, therefore, live even after death. Such longing must find
contentment even beyond the grave. Yet, only those who have faith are convinced with immortality. That is why Jesus has
been insistent on this. Life after death is an indispensable part of his gospel.
Christianity cannot be without immortality. This is the assurance of the Lord
that he who believes in him will live and not perish (cf Jn
b. Our faith in the resurrection means our mortal
bodies will rise at the last day. "They are the children of God because
they are the ones who will rise. That the dead will rise
even Moses made known in the passage about the bush.” Souls, since they are
incorporeal, are immortal. This is a teaching which is taught even by non-Christian
religions and philosophies. But that our bodies will rise too at the last day
is peculiar to Christianity. Of course, we know not how we shall look like on
that day. We are not sure if we will look much handsomer or we will all awfully
look like Zombies. No one knows. But that is not the point here nor is the
concern of the gospel on the resurrection. If ever we believe in the
resurrection of the bodies, it is because Jesus himself- upon whose person we
base our teaching and belief- has risen from the dead with his body. This is
practically the point
c. But our risen bodies, like the Lord's, are transfigured ones. Thus, although we still live after
death, our transfigured bodies are no longer earthly. This is the difference
between our present and future lives. That is why Jesus makes it clear today: "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 to marriage.”
2. With this, marriage and sexuality acquire a wider
and nobler meaning and understanding. There is no reason to worry that life
after death excludes marriage and sexuality. Human sexual relations are indeed
necessary but only in this life: biologically and culturally, in order to
preserve and promote the human species and human families; psychologically and
socially, in order that man and woman may find meaning in their companionship
as couples and as parents; morally and religiously, so that the husband and
wife may be a good reflective of the love and fidelity of God to his
people. Marriage, then, has been a consecrated institution in this world so
that God's own creation may be filled by humans who shall be both citizens of
this world and members of the church. But such situation no longer happens in
the new life of the resurrection. There is no need to generate since there will
be no more death. So, the children of the resurrection neither marry nor are
given to marriage.
The Christian concept of marriage and sexuality,
then, is in no way repugnant to our belief in the resurrection. It is not a
thing to be dismayed either. After all, life - and real life for the matter -
is more than marriage and sexuality. The joys that any relationship could ever
give will be perfected in God's eternal kingdom of love.
3. Our faith in the resurrection, therefore, makes the source of our hope as believers and of our inspiration as pilgrims. In fact, as we sojourn towards our eternal home, we bear the testimonies of the past in our pious memory. The experience of the Maccabean martyrs is a great reminder. Although the teaching on the resurrection was not that clear as what we have at the time of Christ, the seven brothers got their courage and strength to face the horrible pains of martyrdom by the simple yet. Firm belief in the life after death. The verbatim account that we have in our first reading must move our religious sentiments. At his last breath, the second brother says: "Inhuman fiend, you may discharge us from this life, but the King of the world will raise us up, since it is for his laws that we die, to live again forever.” And for his part, the fourth brother cries: "Ours is the better choice, to meet death at men’s hands, yet relying on God's promise that we shall be raised up by him; whereas for you there can be no resurrection, no new life.” These same courage and inspiration, sentiments and testimonies shall be repeated by tens and thousands of souls of our Christian martyrs who offered their lives for the sake of the faith. Indeed, their human suffering is nothing compared to the joys of the coming life!