32nd Sunday Ordinary time C
(Nov 7, 2010)
Fr James McTavish, FMVD
Three little worms
There were 3 worms crossing the railway track, daddy worm, mummy worm and baby worm. Suddenly a train came. They squiggled as fast as they could. After the train passed the baby worm said “Thank God the four of us are safe.” Explain! This was the question I was asked this week. Sometimes in life there are tricky questions which come along and the same happened to Jesus in front of the Sadducees. The Sadducees were a priestly class, many of them aristocratic and wealthy. They did not believe in the resurrection and held on the Pentateuch (Torah) as authoritative. They present Jesus a trick question - "Teacher, Moses wrote for us, If someone's brother dies leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first married a woman but died childless. Then the second and the third married her, and likewise all the seven died childless. Finally the woman also died. Now at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be? For all seven had been married to her." It is a trick question because they did not believe in the resurrection of the dead.
How does Jesus answer them? He reminds them that in this age marriage is necessary to continue the human race but in the next life all will be alive in God. There will be no wedding celebrations in heaven only the definitive ‘wedding’ of each one with God. One woman came back from Church and told her husband that the priest said in the homily that in heaven they would not recognize each other. The husband replied “that is why it is called heaven!” A little joke! In this present earthly life, consecrated life is called to be a sign of the future reality where we will be joined to God. Some people wonder why Religious do not have a wife or husband. Is it because no-one found them attractive or just because there was no talent? One missionary told us how when he was a medical student, long before he entered missionary life, he fell in love with the smile of a beautiful girl in the library. She was studying dentistry and would go there to look at her books and he would go to look at her. One day she invited him for a cup of tea at her grandmother’s house. There he admired so much the beautiful teeth of this dentistry student. When the grandmother asked him for more tea he got a shock as he saw her lone tooth. In that moment he had a vision of things to come – the contrast between the beautiful teeth of his sweetheart and the beautiful tooth of the grandmother. He would later enter religious life and once a priest he became extremely sick. Some students asked him did he regret not marrying his girlfriend. He replied from his wheelchair “No way! Before I only had one girlfriend, but now I have 3,000 million.” Consecrated chastity is a sign of the world to come and invites Religious to have a heart full of the love of Christ for all people.
A sure sign of faith in the resurrection comes from those who give their life for Christ. It is not by chance they are called martyrs, which is a Greek word meaning witnesses. By their death, they witness their undying love for Christ and their faith in the resurrection. The first reading presents the seven brothers put to death for their belief in God (2 Maccabees 7, 1-2.9-14). They were tortured to force them to eat pork against their Jewish faith. At the point of death they said “the King of the world will raise us up to live again forever” and “It is my choice to die at the hands of men with the hope God gives of being raised up by him”. This same courage is shown in the lives of many martyrs. Last week we went for a 2 day retreat in a Jesuit retreat house in Novaliches, near Manila. I was very struck by an image and the life story of an English Jesuit martyr called Edward Campion. He was a brilliant orator at Oxford university and gave the welcome address to Queen Elizabeth I when she came to visit in 1569. Later he became a Jesuit Catholic priest and was put to death for his faith, sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered.
Seeing the courage of these people can help us live the challenges of this life. They help us strengthen our faith in the resurrection. How is our faith in the resurrection? We should look at how we live each day and how we face death – those moments when we should die to our selfishness and useless fears. Die to that feeling of rancour and bitterness towards that person you do not like! Die to that laziness that makes your following of Christ lukewarm! Die to that addiction to Facebook that cuts your prayer time! There are many small ways we need to die, to die to sin, to die to all that is not love including dying to pessimism and criticisms! In the moment of death our earthly life will be transformed. Don’t leave all the work for the last minute but each day we need to die a little each day! Eternity begins today. If we do not believe in the resurrection we will also be Sadducees - Sad-you-see! If we do not believe in the resurrection then in the moments of struggle and death we too will be sad you see. How great in the moments of darkness to announce like the psalmist “Lord, when your glory appears, my joy will be full!” We have this certainty that after the winter comes the spring. Jesus alludes to this God of the living in answering the Sadducees. He draws from their much loved Pentateuch where it says that God is a God of the living and not of the dead so their ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are alive in God as “God is a God of the living not of the dead”.
And why did the baby worm say 4 of us were safe and not three? Because he couldn’t count yet! But one thing we can count on is God’s love for us and he comes in every Eucharist to strengthen our love for him and to learn how not to be afraid of death. In this way, we can give witness and be martyrs, so that ‘the Word of God can run its course and be glorified’ (2 Thess 3,1). Let us continue this Eucharist with courage knowing we have a God who loves us and gives his life for us in every Eucharist and may he strengthen our faith in the resurrection of the dead. Amen
(Nov 7, 2010)
Fr James McTavish, FMVD
Three little worms
There were 3 worms crossing the railway track, daddy worm, mummy worm and baby worm. Suddenly a train came. They squiggled as fast as they could. After the train passed the baby worm said “Thank God the four of us are safe.” Explain! This was the question I was asked this week. Sometimes in life there are tricky questions which come along and the same happened to Jesus in front of the Sadducees. The Sadducees were a priestly class, many of them aristocratic and wealthy. They did not believe in the resurrection and held on the Pentateuch (Torah) as authoritative. They present Jesus a trick question - "Teacher, Moses wrote for us, If someone's brother dies leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first married a woman but died childless. Then the second and the third married her, and likewise all the seven died childless. Finally the woman also died. Now at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be? For all seven had been married to her." It is a trick question because they did not believe in the resurrection of the dead.
How does Jesus answer them? He reminds them that in this age marriage is necessary to continue the human race but in the next life all will be alive in God. There will be no wedding celebrations in heaven only the definitive ‘wedding’ of each one with God. One woman came back from Church and told her husband that the priest said in the homily that in heaven they would not recognize each other. The husband replied “that is why it is called heaven!” A little joke! In this present earthly life, consecrated life is called to be a sign of the future reality where we will be joined to God. Some people wonder why Religious do not have a wife or husband. Is it because no-one found them attractive or just because there was no talent? One missionary told us how when he was a medical student, long before he entered missionary life, he fell in love with the smile of a beautiful girl in the library. She was studying dentistry and would go there to look at her books and he would go to look at her. One day she invited him for a cup of tea at her grandmother’s house. There he admired so much the beautiful teeth of this dentistry student. When the grandmother asked him for more tea he got a shock as he saw her lone tooth. In that moment he had a vision of things to come – the contrast between the beautiful teeth of his sweetheart and the beautiful tooth of the grandmother. He would later enter religious life and once a priest he became extremely sick. Some students asked him did he regret not marrying his girlfriend. He replied from his wheelchair “No way! Before I only had one girlfriend, but now I have 3,000 million.” Consecrated chastity is a sign of the world to come and invites Religious to have a heart full of the love of Christ for all people.
A sure sign of faith in the resurrection comes from those who give their life for Christ. It is not by chance they are called martyrs, which is a Greek word meaning witnesses. By their death, they witness their undying love for Christ and their faith in the resurrection. The first reading presents the seven brothers put to death for their belief in God (2 Maccabees 7, 1-2.9-14). They were tortured to force them to eat pork against their Jewish faith. At the point of death they said “the King of the world will raise us up to live again forever” and “It is my choice to die at the hands of men with the hope God gives of being raised up by him”. This same courage is shown in the lives of many martyrs. Last week we went for a 2 day retreat in a Jesuit retreat house in Novaliches, near Manila. I was very struck by an image and the life story of an English Jesuit martyr called Edward Campion. He was a brilliant orator at Oxford university and gave the welcome address to Queen Elizabeth I when she came to visit in 1569. Later he became a Jesuit Catholic priest and was put to death for his faith, sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered.
Seeing the courage of these people can help us live the challenges of this life. They help us strengthen our faith in the resurrection. How is our faith in the resurrection? We should look at how we live each day and how we face death – those moments when we should die to our selfishness and useless fears. Die to that feeling of rancour and bitterness towards that person you do not like! Die to that laziness that makes your following of Christ lukewarm! Die to that addiction to Facebook that cuts your prayer time! There are many small ways we need to die, to die to sin, to die to all that is not love including dying to pessimism and criticisms! In the moment of death our earthly life will be transformed. Don’t leave all the work for the last minute but each day we need to die a little each day! Eternity begins today. If we do not believe in the resurrection we will also be Sadducees - Sad-you-see! If we do not believe in the resurrection then in the moments of struggle and death we too will be sad you see. How great in the moments of darkness to announce like the psalmist “Lord, when your glory appears, my joy will be full!” We have this certainty that after the winter comes the spring. Jesus alludes to this God of the living in answering the Sadducees. He draws from their much loved Pentateuch where it says that God is a God of the living and not of the dead so their ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are alive in God as “God is a God of the living not of the dead”.
And why did the baby worm say 4 of us were safe and not three? Because he couldn’t count yet! But one thing we can count on is God’s love for us and he comes in every Eucharist to strengthen our love for him and to learn how not to be afraid of death. In this way, we can give witness and be martyrs, so that ‘the Word of God can run its course and be glorified’ (2 Thess 3,1). Let us continue this Eucharist with courage knowing we have a God who loves us and gives his life for us in every Eucharist and may he strengthen our faith in the resurrection of the dead. Amen
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