32nd Sunday Ordinary Time – All are alive!
All are alive! The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection and even the Pharisees who did believe considered the resurrection to come in the future. Jesus reveals today our God “is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.” We just celebrated All Saints Day and All Souls Day to affirm “all are alive” in Jesus. There are some Christian denominations who believe after death a soul remains “at rest” in its body until the day of the resurrection except that the body decays so that cannot be. The day of the resurrection came into the world with the resurrection of Jesus. Jesus went into the netherworld and freed the souls in purgatory and is ready to free us from the grip of death. If anything, the souls are in a state of purgatory not in the ground.
Today we have the witness of the seven brothers and their mother to remain faithful to God in the midst of their persecution. Are we as ready as the seven brothers and their mother to die for the Lord? The Church teaches upon death there is an immediate particular judgment so we pass from mortal life to eternal life. There is also a general judgement when we will regain our bodies but until then our souls exist to love and serve the Lord of the living together will all the saints and souls in purgatory. This was the essence of the hope of the seven brothers and their mother as one says “with the hope God gives of being raised up by him”. These seven brothers and their mother are an arch type of perfect love represented by the number seven and the mother of our Blessed Mother at their side facing the evil of this world who desires to impose their will upon them.
In the Sadducees we are reminded that even among those who believe in God there are some who do not accept there is a day of judgment that will come swiftly and we must prepare ourselves each day for his coming. Some claim there is no hell and we are all headed to heaven. Others believe the body and soul cannot separate so the souls of the dead remain in the ground by their decomposed bodies asleep until the day of the resurrection. From here comes the Halloween stories of ghosts at cemeteries but if we recall the angels appearing at the tomb claiming “Why are you looking for the living One among the dead? (Lk. 24:5)” He is alive and so are those who have died in Christ.
There are those who represent the power of this world who in their own way desire to force the faithful to “eat the pork” of their values, laws, and decrees even when they are in opposition to our own faith and commandments. It is our turn now to undergo the test. Do we stand for the right to life or accept the right to end life in abortion, euthanasia, or a sentence to die? Do we stand for religious freedom or quietly become silenced by a cancel culture in the public square? The disciples were commanded to stop speaking in the name of Jesus. They were persecuted and even killed but their joy was complete to stand as the seven brothers did knowing something greater awaited them. Perfect love of God does not compromise his commands. It does not go along to get along. The Lord’s commands are a “red line” “to the endurance of Christ” which is unto death for the sake of the gospel.
We are not to fear but to trust in the Lord who “will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one” for there are “perverse and wicked people, for not all have faith.” What are we to do? Keep the faith and wait upon the Lord’s coming for he will not delay at the hour of justice. Jesus says to the Sadducees “those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead…They can no longer die…they are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise”. What does this say about the ones who are not deemed worthy, who crossed the red line into the perverse world? It is called hell, the place for the souls of the damned.
In the mystery of life every day we die and every day we are reborn into new life. Science proves it and our eyes witness it. A child is born an infant but their infancy quickly passes into being a baby, and then a child, an adolescent, and an adult. Science reveals that every five year our cells completely die and are replaced by new cells so that the person we were five years ago has ended and yet you are and are not the same person. There a new body, the voice may change, facial features change, and even attitudes change, and with God there is even a transformation of our very being and yet the soul remains being who God created us to be. This is the day we die with Christ because we desire to come to new life in him. So, if we have died with him, we will also rise with him.
We are fall familiar with the old Christian child’s prayer for bedtime that says, “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my Soul to keep; If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my Soul to take.” It has been changed up with various endings to not instill fear in children such as the one that says, “Angels watch me through the night, and wake me with the morning light.” Both versions have significant meaning for us. The original one is a reminder of the reality of death not to scare us but to give us hope and anticipation of what is still waiting for us which the psalm proclaims, “Lord, when your glory appears, my joy will be full.” The revised versions represent the Lord’s protection beginning with our guardian angel for even in our sleep the evil one comes to disrupt our peace unless we cover ourselves with prayer.
Prayer, fasting, almsgiving are our weapons against evil. They not only protect us but purify us and strengthen us so when a shred of doubt comes there is no doubt how we will respond to the enemy. I recently heard a different explanation of the “Footprints in the sand” story. What we are familiar with is that when the trouble comes and we only see one set of footprints, it is then that he carried us. The other interpretation is that when the troubles come, and we only see one set of footprints “it is then that we were walking in his steps”. When we walk in his steps, we still have to carry our cross and live the “endurance of Christ” in this world but in his steps, we walk in the assurance of victory and in the promise of what is to come. Let us continue to pray for all are alive who have died in Christ even as we walk in his footsteps this day.
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