Homily Thirty-Second of Year C: Fr. Michael Udoekpo
·
2 Mac 7:1-2,9-14;
·
Ps 17:1.5-6,8,15;
·
2 Thess
2:16–3:5
·
Luke
27:27-38
The King of
Life and the Lord of the Resurrection
Today we celebrate the King of Life and the Lord of the
Resurrection. What a, powerful message of hope. There is life after death.
There is a great joy that awaits believers who may have to suffer temporally.
Jesus gives us this example. Even though
Jesus journeyed to Jerusalem to die for us (Luke 9:51–19), his tomb was never
going to be his final destination. This call to hope and faith of a believer,
in the Lord of the resurrection is at the core of today’s scripture readings.
In the first reading when the faith of the Jewish people,
God’s children was under threat, in the 2nd Maccabees era, around
180 BC it was important that they be reminded that their God who had once 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.
A good example is in the moving story of a mother, a
family woman and her seven sons of the Second Maccabees. They 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 Lord and the King of the
resurrection. Can this faith speak to us when we are confronted with
modern challenges?
Of course, this faith spoke to Saint Paul during his trials and
missionary journeys. From his personal faith and encounter and trials, Paul preached faith and hope to his persecuted, worried and despaired Thessalonians
church community. To the troubled Thessalonians,
Paul 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).
God is the source of our strengths . Evil ones, evil things, teachings, and temptations,
frustrations, disappointments, threats and uncertainties can come our ways, as
followers of Christ. What is important is our awareness of this and be able to learn and imitate the Maccabean family and Saint Paul, and apostle of Christ Jesus.
Christ himself was confronted multiple times in the
course of his ministry, the ultimate one been his journey to the cross. In the
Gospel reading of today Jesus is confronted with a funny question he Sadducees
(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! He
is the King of life and the Lord of the Resurrection.
In moments of crises, persecutions, modern
mischievousness, hatreds, wars and terrorism, illnesses and economic hardships
we do not wish to abandon our faith. And may the faith and hope exemplified in today’s
scriptures speak to us, friends, colleagues, family members and our society. We mean that faith, that hope in Christ, who is
our life, the King of life, and the Lord of the resurrection whom we are all invited
to embrace.
