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32nd Sunday of Year C – 2022

In today’s gospel text, we see a group of Sadducees and we are told that they “say there is no resurrection.”
They want to set a trap for Jesus to say something which will lead them to challenge his teaching.
So, thinking themselves clever, they make up a story – a story that could make people laugh but…
it is about an important matter: the resurrection of the dead.

Jesus’ answer will soon have them speechless.
His logic takes them by surprise.
They cannot refute his argument as it arises directly from their scriptures.

When a word is repeated in a conversation, or in a text, it calls for our attention.
When an idea is presented in different ways, when it is stressed again and again, we understand that it has a special meaning.

This is the case in today’s 1st reading (2 Maccabees 7:1-2, 9-14) and in the gospel (Luke 20:27-38).
The words ‘rise’ and ‘resurrection’ come back 4 times in the gospel.
The 1st reading has them under different forms: ‘be raised, resurrection, everlasting life’.

No doubt, there is a challenge there for us, people of the 21st century…
Some of us may also think and say that “there is no resurrection.”
Others may ask themselves… could it be that there is something after this life?
They wonder… is it possible that, after death, we will live again… in a different way, yet be truly alive?

“It is a matter of belief”, will you say, and you are right.
But not only of WHAT you believe but rather… WHOM you believe.

And that is the choice which everyone has to make for himself/herself…

 

Note: Another reflection is available on a different but similar theme in French at: https://image-i-nations.com/32e-dimanche-de-lannee-c-2022/

 

Source: Image: YouTube

32nd Sunday of the Year, C

the-catholic-catalogue”I promise you, I will…” A promise – we may be the one speaking the words. Or, someone else may be assuring us that he will do something for us, she will carry out something on our behalf. If the person speaking is trustworthy, we can hope that we will get what is promised. If he or she is reliable, we may expect that we will obtain whatever we have been told would be done or given.

What if the promise is given by… God? Yes, God makes promises, amazing promises, wonderful promises – so wonderful that we may think that… it is too good to be true. On the other hand, a promise made by God not being fulfilled is… unthinkable!

The 1st reading of this Sunday (32nd, Year C: 2 Maccabees 7:1-2,9-14) shows us people who have been “relying on God’s promise,” and this to the point of waging their life on it! The book of Maccabees tells the story of seven brothers (we meet four of them in this text ) who are faithful to God to the point of death because they are absolutely convinced that they will live again.

Yes, in this text of the Old Testament we see appearing this extraordinary belief in an afterlife. The second brother says it clearly: “The King of this world will raise us up… to live again for ever.” The words of his brother, the fourth one to speak, proclaim the same faith: “Ours is the better choice, to meet death at men’s hands, yet relying on God’s promise that we shall be raised up by him.”

 We could say that this Sunday presents us with… a matter of life and death – a serious matter if ever there was one! And the promise of God is reaffirmed by Jesus himself when challenged by the Sadducees (gospel reading Lk.20:27-38): “God is the God of the living; for the him all men are in fact alive.”

 Are we, alive? Really so? And are we convinced that we can be alive beyond death, if only we rely on God’s promise? It is, indeed, a matter of life and death!

Source: Image: The Catholic Catalogue

 

 

                     

32è dimanche de l’année, C

« Il était une fois… » Des histoires, des contes, des récits de choses merveilleuses, d’aventures captivantes, de personnages étranges ou héroïques – notre enfance en était enchantée. Plus tard, les récits ont continué de faire partie de notre imaginaire et ont joué une autre fonction.

bible-pictures-sadducees-pharisees-1138177-wallpaperLa 1ère lecture de ce dimanche (32è, année C: 2 Maccabées 7:1-2,9-14) nous offre un récit édifiant de la tradition juive alors que l’évangile nous propose une histoire inventée de toutes pièces qui doit servir… de piège, ni plus ni moins. Des Sadducéens, dont il est précisé qu’ils « soutiennent qu’il n’y a pas de résurrection » (Lc.20:27-38) veulent éprouver la connaissance théologique de Jésus et lui présente leur récit un peu fantastique qui se termine avec une question qui se veut astucieuse. La veuve de sept maris sera l’épouse duquel d’entre eux après la mort?

Jésus répond d’une manière… pour le moins désarmante! En langage courant on dirait : « Vous êtes tout à fait en dehors du sujet! » Ou, pire encore : « Vous êtes carrément à côté de la réalité. » Et lui, Jésus, affirme cette réalité plus merveilleuse que le plus merveilleux des contes : « Les morts ressuscitent… car Dieu est le Dieu des vivants. »

 VIVRE! Vivre d’une vie pleine, intense, exaltante, riche de possibilités, débordante de joie! Et surtout, oui surtout, que cela ne finisse jamais. N’est-ce pas ce que nous désirons tous et toutes? C’est justement cette vie qui nous est promise, ou peut-être devrais-je dire… offerte. Oui, c’est cela la ‘résurrection’, mais il faut faire ce geste libre, vraiment responsable, pleinement humain, de l’accepter.

Les derniers mots de l’évangile sont les paroles de Jésus qui dit : « Tous en effet vivent pour lui. » Est-ce vrai? Vraiment vrai? Pour moi, dans ma vie d’aujourd’hui?

On parle beaucoup, souvent, et de bien des manières de ‘la vie après la mort’. Mais qu’en est-il de ‘la vie avant la mort?’ Est-ce qu’elle est déjà pour moi une… résurrection à petits pas?! Au jour le jour, plus riche de croissance – croissance dans la joie, dans la foi, dans la vision de ce qui m’attend, non, de ce qui grandit en moi : l’oeuvre de ce « Dieu des vivants. »

Source: Image: The church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints