Thirty-Second Sunday of Year C
Faith in Christ Who Is our Life and the Resurrection
Fr. Udoekpo, Michael Ufok
§ 2 Mac 7:1-2,9-14;
§ Ps 17:1.5-6,8,15;
§ 2 Thess 2:16–3:5
§ Luke 27:27-38
For several
weeks now our Sunday Gospel readings have been taken from Luke’s Gospel,
particularly from the settings of Jesus’ teaching journeys to Jerusalem to die
for us. He has arrived at that Jerusalem. But it is important that Our Lord
continues to remind us that the death he has journeyed to die in Jerusalem was
never going to end up in the tomb. That He will be victoriously raised from the
dead is an important message of hope for us.
Imagine what life
would have been like for believers without hope and trust in God! Or without
our core believe in the resurrection. When the faith of the Jewish people, the
Children of God of the 2nd Maccabees era, around 180 BC were
threatened by Hellenism and other foreign secular culture it was important that
they be reminded that their God, the God that spoke to Moses face
to face, the God of their Father, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Exod 3:14-15) was
not only alive, but was still with them. Even when they were being persecuted,
tortured and killed because of their faithfulness and obedience to the Law
(Torah) all hope was not lost. Many believed and they needed to be encouraged
and reminded that the faithful ones will be raised to life again- on the
resurrection!
This is the
center-piece and the fountainhead of today’s first reading, which is the moving
story of a mother, a family woman and her seven sons who not only remained
defiance to an earthly and faithless king, but gave up their lives for the sake
of their beliefs, convictions, and faith in God and hope in the resurrection.
Can this faith and
hope speak to us? Faith and hope! They not only spoke to Paul
during his trials and missionary journeys, but Paul spoke faith and hope to his
persecuted, worried and despaired Thessalonians community. This is true
in the Second reading when he wrote, “may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God
our Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting encouragement and good
hope through his grace, encourage your hearts and strengthen them in every good
deed and word… the Lord is faithful he will strengthen you and guard you from
the evil one” (2 Thess 2:16–3:5).
Evil ones, evil
things, teachings, and temptations can come to us, the followers of Christ in
different ways in different contexts, nations and cultures. Christ himself was
confronted a few times with some, soon after his baptism, and throughout his
ministry, and even on his way to Jerusalem. Imagine the question put to Christ
by the Sadducees in the Gospel reading of today (Luke 20:27-38). First of all
they did not believe in the resurrection yet had the audacity to dishonestly
ask Jesus if Mosaic levirate marriage will be practiced in heaven, in the
resurrection! But the point of Jesus’ brilliantly and divinely amazing
soothing response to the Sadducees' mischievousness is what we celebrate today-
Our God is a living God. He is not a God of the dead!
Be it in our
family faith crises we want to learn from the family woman and her children in
2 Book of Maccabees today. We don’t want to abandon our faith in the face of
persecutions, hatreds and wars. Imagine those Christians in those anti-Christian
environments today. We don’t want to abandon our long standing faith in our
everlasting God of the Covenant, in the face of modern politics, family crises,
invented secularism, new scientific discoveries, printing press or new TV adverts
or because of recently published books and acted movies, propounded ideologies,
illnesses, economic and financial difficulties! Even these inventions should be
used in the light faith.
The faith and hope
of today’s bible lesson can speak to us where ever we are and live. In the
midst of pluralism of challenges, temptations and difficulties today, it is
that faith and hope in Christ who is our life and the resurrection that we are
called to embrace.
Reflection Questions
1.
What lessons have we gathered from today’s scripture
readings?
2.
Are we faithful and hopeful Christians?
3.
What prevents us from believing and hoping?
