Readings:
• 2 Mc 7:1-2, 9-14
• Ps 17:1, 5-6, 8, 15
• 2 Thes 2:16-3:5
• Lk 20:27-38
“Let us put it very simply: man needs God, otherwise he remains without hope.” That statement by Benedict XVI, made in his 2007 encyclical, Spe Salvi (“Saved In Hope”), serves well as a prologue to today’s readings. Each has something to say about the virtue of hope, which is, Benedict observed, closely intertwined with the virtue of faith, “so much so that in several passages the words ‘faith’ and ‘hope’ seem interchangeable.”
Both 1 and 2 Maccabees describe the Jewish struggle against the political domination and religious suppression inflicted, first, by the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt and, later, by the Seleucid dynasty of Syria. The story from 2 Maccabees of the seven brothers took place sometime in the early to mid-second century B.C. The story demonstrates, rather dramatically, that some just Israelites would rather die than renounce or “transgress the laws of our ancestors.”
This resolve was based in their belief that “the King of the world”—that is, God—“will raise us up to live again forever.” One of the brothers spoke directly and passionately about his hope of “being raised up by him”, while flatly declaring that his oppressors would not experience resurrection from death to life.
The passage’s description of martyrdom and the Jewish belief in a future resurrection of God’s faithful ones, provides some helpful context for Jesus’ teachings about the afterlife. The Sadducees were an influential group that arose within Palestinian Judaism around the time recorded in 2 Maccabees. During Jesus’ earthly life, the high priest and the temple authorities were Sadducees (Acts 4:1; 5:17). They were distinguished by a staunch, even radical, adherence to the laws of Moses alone; they believed the Torah did not allow for or teach the resurrection from the dead, a belief held by the Pharisees.
The Sadducees presented a dilemma to Jesus based on the levirate law (Deut. 25:5), which stated that if a married man died childless, his brother was obligated to marry his widow. Jesus pointed out there is no marriage in the afterlife because there is no death or procreation in that state. He then went to the heart of the matter, which had to do with God’s nature. Having called out to Moses from the burning bush, God declared: “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Jesus pointed out that those men “all are alive” to God, for he is the source and realization of an eternal hope.
The Bible is the story of God calling man out from sin and to his eternal home. Throughout the Old Testament there is a growing awareness of a hope for the Kingdom of God and an eternal, perfect covenant to be established by the Messiah. While always rooted in dependence upon God and His promises, that hope often focused on material prosperity and freedom from oppression. This hope was strongly connected to wisdom, which is a trusting knowledge of God’s goodness and faithfulness. “Know that wisdom is such to your soul,” wrote the author of Proverbs, “if you find it, there will be a future, and your hope will not be cut off” (Prov. 24:14).
There was a gradual realization of an afterlife beyond the earthly realm. “Hope in the bodily resurrection of the dead established itself as a consequence intrinsic to faith in God as creator of the whole man, soul and body” (CCC, 992).
Hope is central to the Christian life. It is also distinctive, a mark of the uniqueness of the Christian view of life, death, and history. The Church has always taught that if death was not and cannot be conquered, there is no hope. And if there is no hope beyond this temporal realm, there is no meaningful life in this world. Any vision of life that ignores the reality of mortality cannot be a source of authentic hope, for such hope is a grace and a source of everlasting encouragement.
(This “Opening the Word” column originally appeared in the November 7, 2010, issue of Our Sunday Visitor newspaper.)
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God the giver of life, the giver of a reborn spirit through belief in Jesus Christ and the giver of eternal life by means of His shed blood.
We consider these matters true because we have faith. Not a vain faith, but the faith implanted in us by God Himself. Yes he is the author and perfecter of our faith. As our faith grows so does our hope and our hope is not in vain either.
The great gift of love is the outworking of our faith, helping others, fulfilling the good works set out in advance for us to complete. What has been given to us freely, by God, we are commanded to bring that Good News to others.
Islam is much in the news and we have a responsibility as Christians, to preach the word in season. We never know who God has chosen, so we speak boldly in the church and to those we meet in life. St. Francis said “Preach the gospel everywhere and if necessary use words.”
Christianity stands out and can refute any argument made against it. We owe it to our fellow sojourners to speak the truth with boldness and love.
2 Timothy 4:2 Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.
1 Timothy 4:13 Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.
Acts 12:24 But the word of God increased and multiplied.
Revelation 5:5 And one of the elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”
1 Peter 1:23 Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;
Romans 10:14-15 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”
In the love that is Jesus Christ.
P.S. Thank you Carl for this article of blessing!
“Man needs God, otherwise he remains without hope”, indisputable truth insofar as the theological virtue and salvation, although some, like a close relative whose funeral Mass I offered with the hope of his salvation, often quipped when I reminded him when visiting his beautiful home, a lush setting the best nature has to offer, of our preparing spiritually for our heavenly home – this is pretty good.
I can speak for myself and say when all seems doubtful, whether I really meet the test of a Christian life, hope in Christ’s promises, Paul’s admonition to remain confident in Christ’s mercy dispels despondency. I couldn’t say that for the person I loved, who died without overtly turning to Christ. Though we know intercessory prayer and sacrifice work miracles of grace unseen.
What is hope? The Apostle says faith is evidence of what we hope for. Hope, like faith, is a decision. A desire for something better, initially motivated by prevenient grace given assent. What then makes someone opt for the beauty of the visible world rather than for a world unseen? We may never be able to determine why. Why one person believes and another decides not to? Anomalies that drive and resurface in a man’s behavior, here a man who showed great patience, generosity, kindness. He loved animals. Feral cats found a ‘great benefactor’ who fed them, provided those cat houses where they could survive our fierce winters. But he didn’t show that love for the tiniest of vulnerable infants. He defended the shift in Catholic social justice from the right to life to saving the environment. Thought Francis refocus toward social justice for the poor was enlightened.
He died as he lived requesting a simple non Christian burial. Although I offered Mass with hope in Christ’s mercy.