09 Nov 2019
Gospel Reflection
He is God, not of the dead, but of the living.
Reflection & Dialogue: The Resurrection of the Dead and Life Everlasting
The Gospel (Luke 20:27-38)
The Nicene Creed ends with the words: “We look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come”. As this liturgical year draws to a close, all of us could profitably reflect on these truths.
With regard to the first of these, the resurrection, it is well known from the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles and the contemporary historian Josephus, that in Jesus’ day, a chief tenet of Sadducee conviction was denial of the resurrection of the body on the last day. While the Jews had a very keen sense of God’s presence with them in the Temple, in worship, in prayer and in time of trouble, and while they believed firmly that God rewarded the good and punished the wicked, they had no belief in life after death with reward or punishment. They had no concept of a personal existence after death. The spirit of man, and all living things, at death returned to the God who gave it. Not that death meant total extinction. A shade of the human remained, and all the shades of good and evil persons were herded together in an underworld. This left the question of divine retribution and of personal union with God unanswered, questions on which intimations and questions are visible in earlier biblical literature. Matters came to a head with the fierce persecution of the Greek king Antiochus Epiphanes in 167-164 BC and his attempt to wipe out the Jewish religion. Many martyrs sacrificed their lives from the faith. It was then that belief in a bodily resurrection at the end of time became formulated. The belief gave courage to the martyrs (as is clear from today’s first reading). The belief in the resurrection was strongly advocated by the Pharisees, but denied by the Sadducees. As Jesus reminds them in today’s Gospel reading, the power of the living God stands behind resurrection and eternal life. Belief in both is as certain as belief in Jesus’ own resurrection. Both are intertwined.
With regard to eternal life, one is often asked as to what we really know about it, going on credible sources and leaving imagination aside. We have the words of St Paul (1 Corinthians 2:9): “As it is written: What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him”. We can recall that it will not be as human life is here on earth, but as Jesus said to the Sadducees, comparable to that of the angels. We know, however, that in the Church we pray to the elect in heaven, that they hear our prayers, and intercede for the living on earth. They thus are aware of events on earth, a truth we profess in belief in the communion of saints.
Fr Martin McNamara MSC