Breaking Open the Word
By James Cavanagh
Nov. 7: 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Scripture readings:
- 2 Maccabees 7:1-2, 9-14
- Psalm 17:1, 5-6, 8, 15
- 2 Thessalonians 2:16-3:5
- Luke 20:27-38
Overview:
This week’s readings call to mind the last articles of the creed: the resurrection of the body and eternal life. 2 Maccabees was written about a century before Christ. Together with 1 Maccabees, it preserves the history and beliefs of many Jews just before the advent of Christ. Belief in the resurrection took time to develop, but by the time of Christ it was fairly widespread, with some notable exceptions, as this week’s Gospel indicates.
After the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C. the Greek Empire was divided into three kingdoms. The territory that included Israel was ruled by a vicious tyrant named Antiochus IV Ephiphanes who tried to eradicate the Jewish religion. The first reading is part of a story about seven brothers who died gruesome deaths rather than betray their faith. They courageously defied the king because of their unshakeable belief in God and hope in the resurrection.
St. Paul wrote two letters to the church in Thessalonica. They were written to encourage the faithful during a time of persecution. In this week’s second reading Paul points to Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, the source of “everlasting encouragement and good hope.” Although belief in the resurrection was held by many Jews in the first century some, like the Sadducees, did not.
The Sadducees were priests of the Temple and members of the ruling class. They relied strictly on the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, which they believed said nothing about the resurrection. Jesus’ reply is all the more significant because it comes from that part of the Bible that the Sadducees recognized.
Key Verse:
“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” (2 Th. 2:16)
“Catechism of the Catholic Church”:
“The Pharisees and many of the Lord’s contemporaries hoped for the resurrection. Jesus teaches it firmly. To the Sadducees who deny it he answers, ‘Is not this why you are wrong, that you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God?’ Faith in the Resurrection rests on faith in God who ‘is not God of the dead, but of the living’” (No. 993).
Pope Benedict XVI:
“Not only are we part of this heritage of the one human being that began with Adam but we are also ‘incorporated’ in the new man, in the Risen Christ, and thus the life of the resurrection is already present in us” (Homily, Aug. 15).
Life application:
Belief in the Resurrection is one of the hardest beliefs to accept for many people. What matters are not our theories about the afterlife, but the kind of God we believe in. The essential point in this week’s readings is that Christian hope depends, not on wishful thinking, but on God who “is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”
James Cavanagh is director of Evangelization and Catechesis for Metro-Area Parishes of the Denver Archdiocese. For information on subscribing to "Breaking Open the Word, click here. For archives click here.
