Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, C

            II Maccabees 7: 1-2, 9-14

            Ps. 17

            II Thessalonians 2:16-3:5

            Luke 20: 27-38

The connection between the readings today is found in the resurrection of the dead.  The First Reading from the Second Book of Maccabees, recounts the martyrdom of the seven brothers and their mother, for the sake of God and His Torah.  One of the brothers says, “It is my choice to die at the hands of men, with the God-given hope of being restored to life by Him.”  This belief in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting was something that grew in the experience of the Chosen People.  It was a major distinction between the Pharisees (who believed in it) and the Sadducees (who did not).  The Responsorial Psalm looks forward to that time when Christ will return:  “Lord, when Your glory appears, my joy will be full,” and the Church interprets the verses of the psalm as looking forward to the resurrection of the dead—“in justice, I shall behold Your face; on waking, I shall be content in Your presence.”  In the Gospel, the Sadducees present Jesus with a “what if” story in the hopes of confounding Him with an insoluble puzzle.  Instead of being caught up in their dialectic, Jesus shows them that their argument has two fatal flaws.  First of all, those who experience the resurrection will not be “as they were before;” second, the Torah itself (in Jesus’ reasoning) testifies to the resurrection by constantly confessing that God is the “God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.  God is not the God of the dead, but of the living!  All are alive for Him!”

(This last line of the Gospel is sung every time the Office for the Dead is celebrated, in the Invitatory:

“Regem cui omnia vivunt—venite adoremus!  Come, let us adore the King, to whom all things live!”)

“The holy Maccabees cried out to the tyrant:  O Antiochius, for us there is only one King who is God, through whom we have been created and to whom we shall return.  Another world, higher and more lasting than this, awaits us.  Our homeland is the heavenly Jerusalem, strong and indestructible.”  Doxastikon on Ps. 140, feast of the Holy Maccabee martyrs, Byzantine Festal Menaion, August 1

The Second Reading continues our hearing of II Thessalonians.  In keeping with the “end time” theme, Paul encourages us by describing God as giving us “eternal consolation and hope.”  It is this hope that permits us to focus on the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting, rather than seeing the life we are presently living as “all there is.”

This hymn is based on today’s Scriptures:

Sustained by resurrection's promised hope,

The martyred Maccabees, with one accord,

Withstood the tortures of the pagan king

And kept the covenant with Israel's Lord.

This promise of the resurrection life

Was used by some to test our Master's wit.

Christ used this chance to testify:  Death's pow'r

Is by the living God forever split.

This living, faithful Lord will give us strength

And guard us from the snares of faithless sin.

With resurrection into Christ as hope,

God turns our hearts and makes us brave to win.

                                    10.10.10.10

                                    suggested tune:  Sursum Corda