November 7, 2010 – 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

2 Macc 7: 1-2, 7, 9-10 2 Thess 2:16-3:5 Lk 20:27-38

Here we are just two weeks away from the end of the liturgical calendar. It seems very right that we focus our attention on the final things of life, death and resurrection. After all, life on earth is very short compared with eternity! Even so, focusing on death is not at all easy. Most of us would prefer not to think about it unless absolutely necessary, like when we attend a funeral. Unlike birthdays, anniversaries and graduations, we do not usually anticipate and prepare gleefully for our own deaths, so it is good for us to be reminded and see what we need for a good transition into eternal life.

God is love and desires that we live forever in bliss and love. Today’s gospel reading from Luke reminds us that there is more than God’s desire to consider when we think about our own deaths. Hidden away in a debate about a theoretical woman who was married seven times, Jesus speaks in this passage saying, “Those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection ….” So eternal life is not necessarily a sharing in the resurrection unless we are worthy! Now that gives us something to really think about! Who is worthy of eternal life? I doubt that there is any human way to earn the worth needed to enter heaven, but we don’t need to worry about it. Fortunately, God has already made us worthy of Himself through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. What we cannot not do for ourselves is pure gift from the heart of Love Itself. This is reason to rejoice and sing God’s praises. The worth that we have been given came to us at baptism, on the day that we confessed Jesus as Lord and received the gift of redemption. We have been made worthy but we can lose this gift, too. Just like having faith in Jesus means more than belief and includes a life lived in loyalty to Jesus and His teachings, so also the gift of redemption and worthiness must be prized and preserved through our faithfulness to Jesus.

I am sure that most, if not all of us, desire to be faithful to Jesus not just because we want to enter into the resurrection, but simply because we love Jesus. We do our best to live honest, loving, generous lives. We try to live sustainable lives because we know that the Earth and all its creatures are precious to our God who gives them existence. I wonder, though, how far we would be willing to go to live our faith in complete integrity?

In the reading from the Maccabees today, seven brothers were tried and found faithful to the God of Israel, so they were tortured and killed for their faith. Listen to their courage and fidelity. One brother tells the king, “You accursed wretch! You dismiss us from this present life, but the King of the universe will raise us up to everlasting life, because we have died for His laws.” Another brother stretches out his arms and tongue to have them cut off in punishment for remaining faithful to God. He told the king, “I got these from Heaven, and because of God’s laws I disdain them, and from God I hope to get them back again.” Their faith and trust in God gave them the courage to give up their lives, even when they were to be tortured. They were certainly worthy of the resurrection.

We will probably never be asked to die for our faith in such a literal way. Nevertheless, we are given ample opportunities to stand up for our faith and proclaim it to the world. In California, USA, elections were recently held. One proposition on the ballot allowed voters to suspend hard fought for laws protecting the environment. Californians roundly defeated that proposition. Another proposition proposed an $18 vehicle license surcharge to help fund state parks and wildlife programs. This proposition would have prohibited politicians from raiding these funds for other purposes, thus protecting wild lands and wildlife. When it came to personal sacrifice for the environment, the citizens of California said, “Enough! No more,” and they defeated this environmental proposition. It was an opportunity to be faithful to our Creator and Californians said it was too much sacrifice.

We are given opportunities and we can create opportunities to be faithful to God’s plan expressed in the words of Genesis, “Tend the garden.” We want to be found worthy of life in the resurrection. Let us, then, choose faithfulness in every aspect of our faith so that we will be judged worthy.