At the time of the writing of the First and Second Books of Maccabees, circa 400 BC, a tentative belief in some form of an afterlife is just beginning to surface. For example, when Antiochus Epiphanes has seven brothers with their mother arrested and tortured, one after another, the family states its clear belief that the King of the world will raise us up to live again forever. The brothers’ lives are insignificant unless they are true to their covenant and relationship with God, which brings them to hope for resurrection. Their mother, too, has hope in the Lord and remains firm in the face of death. Any one of them might pray Psalm 17: Lord, when your glory appears, my joy will be full, for they know that the just will behold the face of God.
In Luke’s Gospel, the Sadducees, who do not believe in the resurrection of the dead, challenge Jesus with a question about a woman who marries one brother after another: at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be? Those who are worthy, Jesus replies, will attain the resurrection of the dead. But the resurrection of which Jesus speaks is more than resuscitation: it is a true and radical transformation into new life, life in the Body of Christ, perfectly united in that Body as children of God. To be worthy, we might heed the words of St. Paul to the Thessalonians, who prays that our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father encourage your hearts and strengthen them in every good deed and word. Our life and our hope lie not on this earth, but in eternal union with God and with one another, in perfect love and our union with that love. We celebrate our hope for that eternal life in Christ when we participate in his love for all people, giving all the opportunity to know the depth of that love and to find their hope in Christ.
This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com
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