Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
By Rev. Joe McCloskey, S.J.
"What do you expect to achieve by questioning us? We are ready to die rather than transgress the laws of our ancestors." 2 Maccabees 7:2
The children of this age marry and remarry; but 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. Luke 20:34-36
Piety
(Psalm 17:1, 2, 6-8, 15)
Hear, O LORD, my plea for justice; pay heed to my cry; Listen to my prayer spoken without guile. From you let my vindication come; your eyes see what is right. I call upon you; answer me, O God. Turn your ear to me; hear my prayer.
Show your wonderful love, you who deliver with your right arm those who seek refuge from their foes. Hide me in the shadow of your wings from the violence of the wicked. Let me see your face; when I awake, let me be filled with your presence. Amen.
Study
The Spirit touches us in many different ways. Most frequently, we hear the voice of the Spirit in our family and friends. God goes with the love of our hearts and where there is love God is there. The story of the seven brothers and the wife that took each of them when the previous died is one of my favorite memories of my mother. The answer Christ gave to the question of which brother will that woman have in heaven for her husband, sounded to my mother like Christ was saying there would be no husbands in heaven. I could see the question on the face of my mother. When I finished reading the gospel she said to me. “You better have a good answer for my question.” I told her that in heaven we will be able to love everyone as much as the person on earth we loved most. She told me she could live with that answer. We know how much we love Christ in the people we really care about on earth in how much love we show the little ones of our lives. Whatsoever we do for the least one, Christ will accept as done for himself. In heaven the only limit on our love will be our greatest loving on earth. So we are all challenged to open the doors of our heart to let out the Christ expressed in our love for one another.
The seven brothers that were killed because they would not eat pork are a good example of obedience to something more than oneself. It reminds me of the days of my childhood when one would rather die than eat meat on a Friday. How sad it is that there is so little that would make sense to die for. St. Ignatius sets up a question for all of us.
Action
Would you rather die than commit a mortal sin? Mortal sin is the complete break of our relationship to God. What is there in my life that I prefer to God? At this point of my life in this country it is hard to imagine having to make such a choice. Soon such a choice might be a real possibility. We are drifting toward an incredible indifference to what God is asking of us. We are called to love the Lord, our God, with all our mind, heart and soul. Instant gratification pushed many to lose sight of what really counts in life. Our good choices mean we are called to a resurrection to life. God calls us to live in the choices of his son. God will strengthen us and guard us from bad choices. The Lord will direct our hearts to the love of God. He will give us the endurance of Christ. Our God is the God of the living. Life in his son is the only real choice we should make.
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