Thank God for foolish
questions! What would happen if people had not challenged Jesus? What if
everyone had believed what he taught and did not give him opportunity to elaborate
on it? This is especially the case with the Resurrection which is one of the
greatest mysteries. Indeed, you could say that it is the most important. Saint
Paul wrote to the community in Corinth: “For if the dead are not raised, then
Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile
and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have died in Christ have
perished.” (1 Cor. 15: 16-18)
So, what is the
Resurrection? How does it work? The Corinthians had questions just as we do.
For us it is central to our faith and we need to know about it. It is said that
there is no such thing as a stupid question. Mind you, occasionally there are
answers that make the questioner feel stupid.
The intention of the
Sadducees, who were a Jewish group comprised of rich families associated with
the High Priest, was to make Jesus look stupid. They wanted to mock him and
discredit him in the eyes of the people by coming up with a deliberately
foolish scenario. Instead, as he had already done with the Pharisees, Jesus
turns the tables on them and gives us, at the same time, insight into the
Resurrection. Let us look closely to see what he had to say:
First, Jesus makes it
clear that the resurrection does not consist in a replica of our present life.
Aspects of life, such as marriage, we are familiar with now no longer apply. Questions
about what people look like or what they eat will not be relevant. Anything
that admits of change will pass away. The only thing to remain will be those
things which are transformed by God’s power.
Second, once people
have risen there is no longer any possibility of them dying again. They will
last for eternity. Like angels they will exist in the presence of God. There is
no “Plan B” for God or idea of reincarnation for thhosde wanting a “second
chance” at life.
Third, Resurrection is
a birth into a new reality. Being reborn we become children of God, children of
the resurrection. This means we cannot at the same time be “children of the
Evil One, children of death.”
Fourth, although the
term “resurrection” is not used in the Torah, which includes the first five
books of the Bible accepted by the Saducees, there is indirect evidence for the
resurrection in words spoken to Moses in the Book of Exodus. God, who is
revealed as being eternally present, is shown as continuing to be the God of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The Resurrection has been a part of God’s plan from
the beginning as he wants the human race to share his life. Nothing can
separate us from the love of God. Saint Paul tells the Romans: “For I am
convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things
present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything
else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in
Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom 8: 38-39)
Fifth, to God all
people are alive. We cannot escape God through physical death rather all of us
will live in eternity. What remains to be decided by me is how I will
experience that eternity. Will I experience it as bliss, communion and infinite
joy together with all I have loved throughout my life or will it be for me a
state of regret, anger and resentment at the God who summoned me into existence
in the first place?
Would Adolf Hitler feel
happy to experience eternity together with all the Jews, Poles, priests,
homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Gypsies, Social Democrats, etc that he had
tortured and murdered in this life?
Since the Mass is a
sign and sacrament of the worship of heaven how I will experience the
resurrection is indicated by how I experience church here and now. The question
for me is: do I sense the in breaking of God’s life here and now? Do I welcome
it? Am I already conformed to the life I will anticipate in the reality of the
Resurrection? What is within my heart? Is it light or darkness? Saint John tells
us: “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God
is light and in him there is no darkness at all.” (1 Jn: 1: 5) How then can I
know I love God, walking in the light, when I can’t see God? John goes on later
to write: “Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate their brothers or sisters, are
liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen,
cannot love God whom they have not seen.” (1 Jn 4: 20)
The Resurrection,
therefore, may be in the future and different from our present reality however
the way I deal with God and my life now will endure for eternity. That is why
we turn our hearts to God and pray we do not take with us into the resurrection
the things that have cause us and others pain. Eternity is a very long time.
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