Homily for the 32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Nov. 6, 2022. Readings: 2 Maccabees 7:1-14; Gospel of Luke 20:27-38. Theme: Our Sure and Certain Hope!
Just a few years ago, we were horrified to see an Islamic-terrorist propaganda video showing 21 Christian men in orange jumpsuits kneeling on a beach in Libya. One by one they were asked to deny Christ to embrace Islam, and one by one to a man, they refused. Instead they began praying aloud, praising Christ and encouraging one another. Their executioners carried out their bloody evil deed and the 21 men received the glorious crown of martyrdom. What enabled these men to remain faithful to Christ and face death with such serenity as can be seen on their faces in the video?
The Gospel of Jesus we heard today and the words of faith spoken by the seven brothers in our first reading, answers this question for us. Both remind us that the immortality of our souls and the future resurrection of our bodies from the grave are not a “maybe” or an “I hope so”. These things are neither fantasy nor wishful thinking. Rather, they are a sure and certain hope for us Christians. Those 21 men professed their faith in the reality of this truth while kneeling on that beach. And we profess it as a reality every Sunday when we stand to recite the Creed, saying, “I believe in the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.”
These things call our attention to a topic that is very much avoided by our modern day culture: death and what happens to us afterwards. Actually, maybe I am wrong in saying that we avoid this topic. Perhaps it’s more accurate to say that we go to great lengths to pretend that it doesn’t exist. Our secular materialistic culture encourages us to try and hide our true age, to masquerade our maturing looks, and to spend great amounts of money to avoid facing the truth that we are all on a trajectory that will bring our lives to their natural end on planet Earth.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to look our best, to be fit and healthy, and make the most out of the gift of life. But we need to do so with a realistic outlook and a firm grasp on our dignity as the children of God. And as Christians, a healthy realistic outlook includes the sure and certain hope that physical death is not the end to our existence, but rather, the beginning of its fullness. It’s the conviction that when our time on planet Earth has come to its natural conclusion, we move on to a new mode of living, a new way of being, which is really just a change of address, so to speak. As our Catholic funeral liturgy puts it: “in death life is changed, not ended.”
Those 21 men trusted in their hearts and proclaimed with their lives that Christ destroyed the sting and the power of death by his Cross and Resurrection. And they believed firmly that he gives this very same victory over death to all who are united with him by baptism. They knew that because of our baptismal relationship, a Christian does not merely die. A Christian dies in Christ. And those two words, “in Christ” make all the difference in the world! They mean that we do not belong to death; we belong to Christ who is the Resurrection and the Life!
So, for those who live and die in Christ, who strive to remain faithful to their baptismal relationship, death is no longer a black-hole of nothingness. It is instead a doorway to a fuller experience of life. And this fuller life will include not just our immortal souls but, at the Second Coming of Christ, also our glorified risen bodies! This is what the seven brothers of Maccabees in our first reading were proclaiming as they refused to deny their covenant with God. They trusted that he would give back to them what was being taken away. Like them, we trust that God who is all-powerful will raise us up from the dead to enjoy forever a very real life in a very real place which the Bible calls “a new heaven and a new earth”.
And so, we Christians need not be confused or silent in the face of death, as are those who do not have faith. We must speak out with our voices and with the witness of our lives that we believe in the resurrection of the dead. We believe in the life of the world to come. For we know that whatever we may have to endure for the sake of our fidelity to Jesus in this world, is nothing compared to the glory, the joy and the total fulfillment awaiting us in the next. It’s our sure and certain hope!
The 21 Martyrs on the Libyan beach refusing to deny Christ!
The Faces of the 21 Martyrs who have been declared Saints.
They were just ordinary men, workers with families, hope and dreams.
They have reached the ultimate success of human life: eternal union with God!
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