Weekly HOMILY for November 11, 2007: Resurrection: Past, Future, and Present

32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle C
Our Lady of Grace
November 11, 2007

Resurrection: Past, Future, and Present
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato

Focus: Resurrection As Past, Future, and Present
Function: To have those present see their daily dyings as ways of entering into a presently experienced resurrection of their own
Form: The Diamond


The Mystery of Resurrection

In today’s first reading, seven brothers and their mother are martyred for their faith.

They are good Jews, living about 200 years before the birth of Jesus, and they refuse to abandon their faith when the king threatens them. As the passage says, they give up their lives “with the hope God gives of being raised up by him.”

In today’s Gospel, Jesus responds to a question about what marriage will be like in the future life. In his response, he is not denying the wonderful gift of marriage, but he is affirming that rising from the dead to be with God is what really matters.

So, these two passages rivet our attention on our belief resurrection.


The Dimensions of Resurrection

For us, the mystery of resurrection is a great source of hope.

It has first a historical dimension to it. It is rooted in the event of Christ’s resurrection and being seen as risen by the apostles.

The resurrection also has a future dimension to it. We hope for the fullest experience of life after death and for all eternity.

Finally, there must also be a present dimension to resurrection. It is also a reality that gives meaning to all of life, here and now.

But, before resurrection can be explained in any of these dimensions, past, future or present, there must come dying. In following Jesus, we too must die, not just at the end of our time here on earth, but as part of the present process of becoming more and more like him.

It is through our present dyings that we rise to new life in the present and that we prepare to enter the fuller experience of resurrection.


Our Present Dyings

For example, those who marry begin a new life together, but not without some dying to themselves.

Marriage means dying to “I” and rising to “we.” My self and my preferences must yield or blend with those of the other.

With parenthood, there comes a dying to my own free time or time alone. It’s a dying to my expensive hobbies. And parents do this out of love and for the new life and joy of their children.

As children grow and mature, there are the dyings of allowing them more and more their own choice and independence. And these dyings of parents usually lead to new life for the children and eventually for the relationship of parent and child.

There is a dying inherent in growing older, as illness or aches sap some of our strength. There are dyings when our career or work plans do not work out as we had hoped.

And there are dyings when our parents grow old and cannot be there for us as they once were. There are dyings when a friendship or marriage ends.


Love as the Basis of Resurrection

All of these dyings will test our faith in resurrection.

But it is that belief that we see in today’s readings that sustains us and gets us through these daily dyings. One writer says that faith in the resurrection is really faith in a miracle.

And that miracle does not lie solely in the belief that Jesus rose from the dead. The true miracle is what the dying and rising of Jesus reveals to us. What it reveals is the unconditional love of God.

In spite of all the pain and darkness of the world, in spite of our failures to love, our faith in the resurrection is a faith that love is the deepest of all realities, that love is the ground of being, that love is at the center and very heart of the universe.

Pope Benedict has entitled his fist encyclical, his fist letter to the Universal Church, Deus Caritas Est – God is Love.


Conclusion

Jesus reveals this love and he is this love, and is God here on earth. The seven brothers and their mother in today’s first reading die in response to this love.

And we are invited to do the same. That is the faith, the hope and the love that resurrection is all about.