Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 156

Some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, came forward and put this question to Jesus....

November is the month when we remember the mysteries of "death and judgement, heaven and hell." We're rapidly approaching the end of the year, and will celebrate Christ the King of the Universe on Sunday, November 20.  

It would be easy to be distracted by the Sadducees' question in today's gospel, about a woman seven times married and seven times widowed. It's a "what if" question concerning the afterlife; and is designed to fluster and frustrate a teacher of religion. Which is not hard to do since our doctrines are very serious; they address matters of life and death. They are not designed to answer inane questions from silly persons. We say that God will raise up his faithful people from the dead, but we have no idea how he'll do that. Nor can we imagine an endless "resurrection of the body."   

Judaism was not a democracy, but there were influential parties with different beliefs and agendas. The Sadducees were the wealthier party; they were reasonably content and had no great quarrel with Roman rule. Their opponents, the Pharisees were not as wealthy, but claimed to be closer to God because of their scrupulous attention to the Law of Moses. They feared Roman reprisals and urged the faithful to practice their faith quietly and devoutly, without stirring up trouble. Pharisees hoped for an eternal life which would reward the faithful, especially the poor and unfortunate. The Sadducees scoffed at the idea; they were like today's critics who call eternal life pie in the sky. 

Jesus might have played along with the joke and stumped his opponents with the reply, "She'll be married to whomever she chooses!" That would have changed the course of human history! But, for better or for worse, he gave a better, more serious answer. 

But, before we look at his reply, we should recall the background, which is described in today's first reading. The first chapter of First Maccabees describes the terrible persecution of the Jews by their oppressors, and concludes with: 

....they preferred to die rather than to be defiled with food or to profane the holy covenant; and they did die. And very great wrath came upon Israel.

The murder of the widow and her sons is particularly horrible -- (today's lectionary passage is severely abridged) -- but it was only one instance of the violence. 

Is it possible that the painful death of these heroic men and women will be ignored by the Lord God of Heaven and Earth? Will the All-Powerful and All Just not reward their fidelity. If death is really the final end of human life, and there is no heaven, then our God is not so very powerful after all! Death is more powerful, more real, and more important. 

There can be only two responses to that conundrum. We might ignore death, pretending "it won't happen to me." I heard a journalist ask a Russian correspondent if Vladimir Putin is grooming a successor. She replied, "Vladimir Putin does not plan to die." But in that respect he is like millions of people. 

The other response is to believe our God is indeed more powerful, more faithful, and more beautiful than death. Our God will conquer death and make it beautiful for those who die in the faith. 

And so we can take the Sadducees' mocking question seriously. Jesus' replied, 

...those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. They can no longer die, for they are like angels; and they are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise.

In her book, The Genesis of Gender, a Christian theory, Abigail Rine Favoli, notices that Jesus refers to the creation narrative of Genesis and not to the Mosaic Law. The Lord... 

"turns our eyes back toward Genesis and urges us with divine help to reclaim the goodness of the created order, the gift of our bodies and the earth, and to cultivate anew a dynamic reciprocity between the sexes." He "would restore the original order." 

The "coming age" will resemble Eden rather than the ideal world of the Sadducees' or Pharisees' where men retain a sinful superiority over women. The relations of men and women will recognize their equality, their sexual complementarity, and their unashamed beauty like Adam and Eve in the Garden. Like angels who know nothing of death, they will enjoy the freedom of God's children.

And finally, he reminds his skeptical opponent of what should be obvious, "He is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive." 

From its earliest days the Church has cultivated our friendship with the martyrs and saints; they are a living cloud of witnesses and we are as assured of their friendship as we are of God's sovereign authority. If we're never satisfied in this world -- as the Sadducees appear to be -- it's because we're looking forward to the satisfaction promised to the children of God.