Homily
32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time C
Christ the King Parish Topeka
9/10 November 2013
Year of Faith
Daily Readings
At stake in this weekend's scriptures is our faith in the Resurrection of the Body. Jesus is Risen from the dead! He is truly Risen! This is the Easter proclamation of our Church. It is the deepest and most powerful proclamation of the year for us, the proclamation without which our faith is in vain, and we are the stupidest people imaginable. Jesus is truly Risen! And not just his soul, but his body! The tomb is empty. Our humanity, our real bodily humanity, taken up by Jesus in his Incarnation, is destined for redemption, is meant to be raised to the glory of heaven. Christians proclaim as the one thing they know to be true of all things they know to be true, that there is a bodily Resurrection! A Resurrection to which all creation is invited to participate.
The Sadducees make a desperate attempt to show how the law of Moses, which commands a brother to marry his brother's childless wife, confuses the possibility of a bodily resurrection in heaven. Jesus has none of it, and dismisses their trap very easily. Yes, it is true that marriage is vitally important. As the law of Moses recognized, in this world marriage is God's holy and chosen instrument for passing on life, and what is more, it is the best place to experience intimacy and for memory and tradition to be passed on. Marriage is crucial for this world, and now as then we should do everything we can to strengthen marriage. It is the best way this side of heaven to experience life and intimacy, and the best way to pass them on The law of Moses took marriage very seriously. And without belief in a bodily resurrection, it might seem as if marriage is even more crucial, for marriage might be the only way for a person to live beyond death, through his children and being remembered by his family. Otherwise, he would be lost forever.
Yet Jesus reminds us through his teaching that man is only the steward of life. We do not create or control it. God formed man originally from the dust of the earth, and can do so again. So although God chooses and desires marriage for creating life in this world, he does not need it to create life, nor is it his chosen instrument for giving eternal life, so marriage can and does pass away to a greater reality in the kingdom of heaven. It's not that marriage is to be discarded in heaven, or becomes less, but it gives way to something more, to an intimacy and perfection and life that is only possible when we reach our highest destiny in the heart of God, when we enter into resurrected, eternal life.
That is the key to the Resurrection of the body. It is the confirmation that we are all being transformed by the love of God into something more. It is the confirmation that life does not fade, but grows until it reaches its highest and fullest and best point! We believe that there is more life when there is greater love. So we become more alive whenever we move toward God, who is love. We become more alive when we risk love, even at the cost of our earthly existence. Indeed, it is precisely when we love beyond the point of fearing our own death, that life grows to its biggest and fullest and highest destiny.
Ultimately, life on this earth is only good insofar as it is grounded in love. Otherwise, life is just horizontal existence, a participation in matter and energy that came from nowhere and ends up nowhere, and can not be categorized as good or bad. It just is. And without life being grounded in love, it just appears and fades away. It never goes anywhere. Even our attempt to put meaning into our existence ends up nowhere. Yet knowing all we know about the conservation of matter and energy, we still sense that life has a transcendent meaning, and that we have an eternal destiny to live and love forever.
What we discover of course, is that we become more alive when we love. This can't be measured horizontally by a calendar or stopwatch, only vertically. Jesus says it exactly right. Whoever loses his life by loving, finds it. Yet, whoever seeks to preserve his life by refusing to love, loses it. The resurrection of the body is that confirmation that we reach our fulfillment, and become fully alive, and become transformed into our highest destiny, when we are not afraid to love beyond our fear, because love is the ground of life, and whenever we love more, there is more life. Love is stronger than death, and the resurrection of Jesus' body is the confirmation of this.
The Sadducees had forgotten about the glorious historical witness of the Maccabean martyrs who put their trust in a bodily resurrection. The martyrs whom we heard about in the first reading were not afraid to die young for their faith, before they were married or had a chance to pass on their life to their children. No, they knew the truth very well that we become more alive when we latch on to vertical living measured by love, not when we latch on to horizontal living measured by time. We become more alive when we are remembered by God, and are closer to his heart, for He alone is the creator of life, and he alone can secure life and restore it.
Sometimes Christians are accused of being afraid of reality, of ignoring the real condition of this world in order to believe in a fairy tale. My friends, this is such baloney. The witness of the martyrs shows us just the opposite. The Maccabean martyrs did not hate their life in this world. They did not hate their bodily existence. They weren't trying to escape to a fantasy. They weren't out to trade being human for becoming angels. No, quite the opposite, they wanted to become more alive in this world right now, and fully human right now, through love. They loved their life in this world enough to not let it be diminished by forsaking God, the author of life. They lived life to the full, without fear, precisely because they lived in the same hope of the Resurrection that has since been confirmed by Christ's rising from the dead. They loved their lives in this world enough to give them away in order that life may increase, in the hope of being transformed into something even greater as they ventured into the very heart of God.
Those of us who believe in the resurrection of the body don't flee our world. We aren't scared of living or of reality. We don't put our trust in fairy tales. We love life and this world, and its people enough, to not settle for less life when we can have more. We work hard that this world and its persons may have life in abundance, life at its full depth and intensity, and that persons may reach their highest destiny. This only happens when we love beyond our fear of death, and place our hope solely in the life that is born of sacrificial and fearless and perfect love, the love that Christ commanded of us when he said to love one another just as I have loved you. We know that in following the perfect path of love, even to the point of death, that tomorrow there will be more life, resurrected life, eternal life. Amen.
32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time C
Christ the King Parish Topeka
9/10 November 2013
Year of Faith
Daily Readings
At stake in this weekend's scriptures is our faith in the Resurrection of the Body. Jesus is Risen from the dead! He is truly Risen! This is the Easter proclamation of our Church. It is the deepest and most powerful proclamation of the year for us, the proclamation without which our faith is in vain, and we are the stupidest people imaginable. Jesus is truly Risen! And not just his soul, but his body! The tomb is empty. Our humanity, our real bodily humanity, taken up by Jesus in his Incarnation, is destined for redemption, is meant to be raised to the glory of heaven. Christians proclaim as the one thing they know to be true of all things they know to be true, that there is a bodily Resurrection! A Resurrection to which all creation is invited to participate.
The Sadducees make a desperate attempt to show how the law of Moses, which commands a brother to marry his brother's childless wife, confuses the possibility of a bodily resurrection in heaven. Jesus has none of it, and dismisses their trap very easily. Yes, it is true that marriage is vitally important. As the law of Moses recognized, in this world marriage is God's holy and chosen instrument for passing on life, and what is more, it is the best place to experience intimacy and for memory and tradition to be passed on. Marriage is crucial for this world, and now as then we should do everything we can to strengthen marriage. It is the best way this side of heaven to experience life and intimacy, and the best way to pass them on The law of Moses took marriage very seriously. And without belief in a bodily resurrection, it might seem as if marriage is even more crucial, for marriage might be the only way for a person to live beyond death, through his children and being remembered by his family. Otherwise, he would be lost forever.
Yet Jesus reminds us through his teaching that man is only the steward of life. We do not create or control it. God formed man originally from the dust of the earth, and can do so again. So although God chooses and desires marriage for creating life in this world, he does not need it to create life, nor is it his chosen instrument for giving eternal life, so marriage can and does pass away to a greater reality in the kingdom of heaven. It's not that marriage is to be discarded in heaven, or becomes less, but it gives way to something more, to an intimacy and perfection and life that is only possible when we reach our highest destiny in the heart of God, when we enter into resurrected, eternal life.
That is the key to the Resurrection of the body. It is the confirmation that we are all being transformed by the love of God into something more. It is the confirmation that life does not fade, but grows until it reaches its highest and fullest and best point! We believe that there is more life when there is greater love. So we become more alive whenever we move toward God, who is love. We become more alive when we risk love, even at the cost of our earthly existence. Indeed, it is precisely when we love beyond the point of fearing our own death, that life grows to its biggest and fullest and highest destiny.
Ultimately, life on this earth is only good insofar as it is grounded in love. Otherwise, life is just horizontal existence, a participation in matter and energy that came from nowhere and ends up nowhere, and can not be categorized as good or bad. It just is. And without life being grounded in love, it just appears and fades away. It never goes anywhere. Even our attempt to put meaning into our existence ends up nowhere. Yet knowing all we know about the conservation of matter and energy, we still sense that life has a transcendent meaning, and that we have an eternal destiny to live and love forever.
What we discover of course, is that we become more alive when we love. This can't be measured horizontally by a calendar or stopwatch, only vertically. Jesus says it exactly right. Whoever loses his life by loving, finds it. Yet, whoever seeks to preserve his life by refusing to love, loses it. The resurrection of the body is that confirmation that we reach our fulfillment, and become fully alive, and become transformed into our highest destiny, when we are not afraid to love beyond our fear, because love is the ground of life, and whenever we love more, there is more life. Love is stronger than death, and the resurrection of Jesus' body is the confirmation of this.
The Sadducees had forgotten about the glorious historical witness of the Maccabean martyrs who put their trust in a bodily resurrection. The martyrs whom we heard about in the first reading were not afraid to die young for their faith, before they were married or had a chance to pass on their life to their children. No, they knew the truth very well that we become more alive when we latch on to vertical living measured by love, not when we latch on to horizontal living measured by time. We become more alive when we are remembered by God, and are closer to his heart, for He alone is the creator of life, and he alone can secure life and restore it.
Sometimes Christians are accused of being afraid of reality, of ignoring the real condition of this world in order to believe in a fairy tale. My friends, this is such baloney. The witness of the martyrs shows us just the opposite. The Maccabean martyrs did not hate their life in this world. They did not hate their bodily existence. They weren't trying to escape to a fantasy. They weren't out to trade being human for becoming angels. No, quite the opposite, they wanted to become more alive in this world right now, and fully human right now, through love. They loved their life in this world enough to not let it be diminished by forsaking God, the author of life. They lived life to the full, without fear, precisely because they lived in the same hope of the Resurrection that has since been confirmed by Christ's rising from the dead. They loved their lives in this world enough to give them away in order that life may increase, in the hope of being transformed into something even greater as they ventured into the very heart of God.
Those of us who believe in the resurrection of the body don't flee our world. We aren't scared of living or of reality. We don't put our trust in fairy tales. We love life and this world, and its people enough, to not settle for less life when we can have more. We work hard that this world and its persons may have life in abundance, life at its full depth and intensity, and that persons may reach their highest destiny. This only happens when we love beyond our fear of death, and place our hope solely in the life that is born of sacrificial and fearless and perfect love, the love that Christ commanded of us when he said to love one another just as I have loved you. We know that in following the perfect path of love, even to the point of death, that tomorrow there will be more life, resurrected life, eternal life. Amen.
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