Pastor's Letter 20221106 - 06 November 2022 - Immortality

[Father Michael]

November 6^th, 2022

32^nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

A Message from Father ^_†Michael

Today’s Theme:  “Immortality”

Reflections on Today’s Scripture

(2 Maccabees 7: 1-14)  Because Christ lives, death no longer wields the final low; death has become the passage to a fuller life—immortality!  For those who believe, death wields no finality.

 The Maccabee for whom these books are written was Judas Maccabeus (one of the sons of the priest, Mattathias, who instigated the Jewish revolt—67 B.C.,) over their Seleucid (Greek) oppressors.  His purpose in writing was to edify and encourage his Jewish contemporaries in their resistance to the process of Hellenization (adopting the belief system of the Greeks.)  Today’s excerpt highlights the plight of seven brothers and their mother’s valiant witness to their faith through their martyrdom, and a developing doctrine of a personal resurrection—wherein the just shall live forever.

~~~

(2 Thessalonians 2:16-3-5)  Christ’s strength has become our own strength; His ministry, our own ministry.  The united prayer of the believing community is one of the most potent forces in the universe.

^_†Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians contain considerable development of doctrine in the new Church.  Today’s excerpt contains five of them:

• Jesus is proclaimed as Lord and Son of God, who has been raised from the dead; 

• God gives the Holy Spirit to those who believe in the Good News of Jesus; 

• Christians will experience Christ’s “Second Coming,” as Savior and Judge; 

•  Christian life should be characterized by faith, hope and charity; and 

• Persecution is an integral aspect of the life of the believer.

~~~

(Luke 20: 27-38)  The disarming statement “Jesus is risen!” and all it implies, has radically altered the course of human events.  His rising has become a pledge, promising our own resurrection.  Concern over how things shall be in heaven should not detract from our present commitments.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus implied that when God’s relationship with us will never be dissolved, not even in death.  He taught that resurrected life is not merely a continuance of earthly life, but an entirely new mode of existence, wherein marriage will have no relevance, as that is a state of being for earthly life.  In the reality of the resurrection, our faith finds meaning and fulfillment.

Eternal Life

As our life proceeds, we become increasingly aware of how fleeting it is, and how precarious is our hold over it.  In spite of ourselves, we become familiar with the thought of death.  But this doesn’t’ have to be negative or morbid.  In fact, it can be very positive.  Thoughts of death can lead to a very positive view of life, which transcends the life we know now.  It may sound beautiful, but it doesn’t mean it is easy.

When we die, our death is preceded by many other smaller passages.  At our birth, we made the passage from life in the womb to that outside, into the cold, real world. When we began school, we passed from life in the family to that in the community.  Those who marry pass from a life with many options to one committed to one person.  At our retirement, we transit from life clearly defined by work, to one without a definitive purpose.  Each of those passages result in a kind of death, but also leads to a new life!

Our religious faith helps us to confront the reality of death in the most propitious manner.  Faith enables us to fac death with courage and hope, because we can overcome it, as did our Blessed Lord, Jesus.  But the courage of faith of people like the woman and her seven sons, about which we heard in our First Reading today, also serve as a powerful example to us who follow them in faith.  Martyrs, by their witness to the Spirit, show us that life is stronger than the forces of death.  

‘Proofs” base on the immortality of the soul are not very helpful, however, in everyday life.  For the Christian, the real ground of immortality is fellowship with the risen Lord, and with the living God.  This can be best achieved in the company of like believers in a Church community.  As ^†Paul reminds us, in our Second Reading today, “God has given us His love, and through His grace, inexhaustible comfort and such sure hope.” 

We have learned of God’s promises through our Savior, Jesus Christ, which cannot fail—promises which death cannot annul.  Our hope of resurrection lies in the power and love of God.  Death is not the enemy who puts an end to everything, but, rather, the friend who takes us by the hand and lads us into the Kingdom of eternal love. 

The Meaning of Courage

The first kind of courage, and the one with which most of us can relate, is associated with places like the battlefield (both literal and figurative.)  The second is quiet, serene and unassertive—nevertheless, unflinching.  It is impervious to the most alluring blandishments as well as to direct threats.  

A vivid example of the second kind of courage can be seen in the activities and the life of Blessed Mother Teresa, among the indigent and suffering people of Calcutta.  

We might tend to think that fear and courage are mutually exclusive.  However, courage does not mean “never being afraid.”  Rather, it means being fearful, but overcoming it, or carrying on in spite of it.  Nelson Mandela once said:  “I learned the meaning of courage from my comrades in the struggle.  Time and time again, I have seen men and women show a strength and a resilience that defies the imagination.  I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave person is not one who doesn't feel afraid, but one who conquers that fear.”

The conviction that one is doing “the right thing” gives enormous strength.  At such times we act out of the deepest goodness that is in us—in the image of God, within us.  

Courage is such an important virtue because, without it, we can’t reliably practice any other virtue.   Our world needs ordinary courage today, not so much heroism.  We see a great deal of this in the daily lives of many people, when we think of the suffering they bear and the hardships they suffer.  Courage is not so much about climbing mountains as accepting defeat without losing heart. 

When we profess our faith, each time we participate in the Holy Mass—as we recite the Nicene Creed—we say: “…we look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.”  Our belief in an afterlife is one that gives our mortal lives their most meaning. 

With this belief, the paths of our lives on earth become a journey to the promised land of eternal life.  Hope is vital, as we deal with waiting and longing for one thing or another.  We become conscious that this life can never fulfill our deepest desires.   The prospect of life hearafter should enable us to live joyfully with the mystery of our fragile human condition—which sees us suspended between heaven and earth, between time and eternity, between nothingness and infinity….   Without hope, however, life on earth becomes a journey to nowhere!  

May God Richly Bless You!

Find Us Faithful.docx

No recording of Holy Mass, today. 

Edited November 6, 2022 by Father Michael