Martin McNamara, MSC<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A. The bible<\/em> as Guide in Life and Liturgy (Sunday Readings)<\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n B. Reflection & Dialogue: <\/em><\/strong>The Resurrection of\nthe Dead and Life Everlasting<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Bible as Guide in Life and Liturgy (Sunday Readings)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n First Reading <\/em>(2 Maccabees 7:1-2, 9-14). The King of the world will raise us up to\nlive for ever. <\/em>This reading is part of a long chapter on the martyrdom of\nthe seven sons and their mother during the fierce and savage persecution\n(167-164 BC) of the Greek king Antiochus IV, in his attempt to utterly wipe out\nthe Jewish religion and have it replaced by a pagan cult. This martyrdom served\nas a model for persecuted believers whether Jews or Christian, and these Jewish\nmartyrs were venerated by the Christian church. Belief in the bodily\nresurrection had become more common among sections of the Jewish community at\nthat time, and it served as encouragement for those called on to die rather\nthan forsake their religion. Explicit faith in the resurrection is made by the\nsecond, the third and the fourth brother in today\u2019s reading. They will be\nraised up to life again by God, the King of the world. The reading goes well\nwith the gospel passage read today, in which Jesus defends belief in bodily\nresurrection against the Sadducees, who denied it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Responsorial Psalm <\/em>(Psalm 16[17]). I shall be filled, when I awake, with the\nsight of your glory, O Lord.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Second Reading <\/em>(2 Thessalonians\n2:16-3:5). May the Lord strengthen you in\neverything good that you do or say. <\/em>This reading is the concluding section\nof this epistle on encouragement to persevere (2 Thessalonians 2:13-3-5). This,\nin turn, comes after a section of this letter on the (second) coming of the\nLord Jesus Christ and the prelude to it (2 Thessalonians 2:1-12), part of which\nwas read in last Sunday\u2019s second reading. This present section seems to have\nthe end time in mind also. It speaks of how believers can prepare, and be\nprepared, for it. One is a spirit of thankfulness and confidence in an awareness\nof being called by God and saved by the Holy Spirit who makes us holy and gives\nfaith in the truth. Believers are called by the Gospel to claim as their own\nthe glory of Christ, to be glorified by the Christ\u2019s own glory (2:13-14). Flowing\nfrom these truths there comes a call to the first recipients of this letter and\nto all believers to stand firm and to keep the traditions they have been\ntaught, whether by word of mouth or by letter. The traditions are the truths of\nChristianity that Paul himself had received from the Lord, from the early\nChurch, and which he had passed on, by word of mouth, orally, and by letter \u2013\nhis first letter to the Thessalonians and possibly others (2:15).<\/p>\n\n\n\n All\nChristian belief is kept alive by prayer, and in this reading Paul recalls all\nthe gifts that have been given to believers by Christ and God the Father, the\ngifts of love, of comfort and hope, and he prays that they will be comforted\nand strengthened by God in everything good within them, in what they do and\nsay. Having prayed for them, Paul now calls on them to pray for a variety of\nmatters. The first is that the true faith, the Lord\u2019s message, may spread\nquickly, and furthermore that it may be received with honour by others as it\nhas among them. Paul is probably thinking of malevolent unbelievers,\ninterfering bigoted and evil people. The Gospel was already experiencing\nsustained attack. He concludes with a profession of faith in the Lord who is\nfaithful and will sustain the believing community to which he writes — and\nall believers in the future who will read or listen to his message of hope and\nencouragement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Gospel<\/em> (Luke 20:27-38). He is God, not of the dead, but of the\nliving. <\/em>The setting for this episode in the life of Jesus is Jerusalem and probably in the Temple itself. We are in Judea,\nwhich was then under direct Roman rule, paying taxes directly to Caesar. Two\ngroups put questions to Jesus, in an attempt to get him into trouble with the\nRoman authorities, or to embarrass him. One is a question by spies of the scribes\nand high priests as to whether taxes should be paid to Caesar. Jesus replies\nwith the well-known statement on what to render to Caesar and what to God. The Temple was controlled by\npriests of the Sadducee persuasion. It is well known from the Gospels, the Acts\nof the Apostles and the contemporary historian Josephus, that a chief tenet of\nSadducee conviction was denial of the resurrection of the body on the last day.\nWhile the Jews had a very keen sense of God\u2019s presence with them in the Temple, in worship, in\nprayer and in time of trouble, and while they believed firmly that God rewarded\nthe good and punished the wicked, they had no belief in life after death with\nreward or punishment. They had no concept of a personal existence after death.\nThe spirit of man, and all living things, at death returned to the God who gave\nit. Not that death meant total extinction. A shade of the human remained, and\nall the shades of good and evil persons were herded together in an underworld.\nThis left the question of divine retribution and of personal union with God\nunanswered, questions on which intimations and questions are visible in earlier\nbiblical literature. Matters came to a head with the fierce persecution of the\nGreek king Antiochus Epiphanes in 167-164 BC and his attempt to wipe out the\nJewish religion. Many martyrs sacrificed their lives from the faith. It was\nthen that belief in a bodily resurrection at the end of time became formulated.\nThe belief gave courage to the martyrs (as is clear from today\u2019s first reading).\nThe belief in the resurrection was strongly advocated by the Pharisees, but\ndenied by the Sadducees. They attempt to show how foolish the belief is by the\nexample of the law of what is known as levirate marriage (levir<\/em> is Latin for brother-in-law) of Deuteronomy 25:5-6). Jesus\npoints out their error: the next life is not a continuation or replica of this\nwith begetting and death. Life there is comparable to that of the angels. He\nfurther notes that there is more to a biblical text than the mere letter. There\nis the power of the living God behind it. The reading gives a clear example of\nthe development of doctrine, which will develop further with the resurrection\nof Jesus. Belief in our own eternal life and resurrection is as certain as\nbelief in Jesus\u2019 own. Both are intertwined. The joys of eternal life pass\nbeyond what has entered into the mind oh mortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n B. Reflection &\nDialogue<\/em><\/strong>: The Resurrection of the Dead and Life Everlasting<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Nicene Creed ends with the words: We look forward to\nthe resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. As this\nliturgical year draws to a close we, clergy and laity, could profitably reflect\non these truths. There is no need here to dwell on the first of these, which\nhas been commented on in today\u2019s readings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With\nregard to eternal life, one is often asked as to what we really know about it,\ngoing on credible sources and leaving imagination aside. We have the words of St Paul (1 Corinthians\n2:9): \u201cAs it is written: What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human\nheart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him\u201d. We can recall\nthat it will not be as human life is here on earth, but as Jesus said to the\nSadducees, comparable to that of the angels. We know, however, that in the\nChurch we pray to the elect in heaven, that they hear our prayers, and\nintercede for the living on earth. They thus are aware of events on earth, a\ntruth we profess in belief in the communion of saints. One could expand on\nthis, but this is not necessary here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another truth\nworth recalling at this time is that our belief in eternal life does not affect\nour concern for human affairs, and the betterment of our society and way of\nlife. In fact it should add to it. Since we look forward to new heavens and a\nnew earth, where righteousness is at home (2 Peter 3:13) we should aim to have our\npresent world already conform to this as much as possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Martin McNamara, MSC A. The bible as Guide in Life and Liturgy (Sunday Readings) B. Reflection & Dialogue: The Resurrection of the Dead and Life Everlasting The Bible as Guide … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sunday-readings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=944"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":945,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944\/revisions\/945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}