Be prepared; live this moment as if heaven were here and now

Luke 20: 27–38

Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus and asked him a question, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; then the second and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. Finally the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her.” Jesus said to them, “Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. Indeed they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.”

Music Meditations

Goodness Is Stronger than Evil—Desmond Tutu and John Bell
Jesus Remember Me—Taizé
10,0000 Reasons—Matt Redman
Shepherd Me, O God—Marty Haugen (Psalms for the Church Year)

Opening Prayer

Help me Lord, to believe in my own personal resurrection, since this belief gives meaning to all that I do and say, all that I pray. Help me to remember that at the doorway of death, life is changed not ended. Help me to believe that the loved ones I have lost are not really “lost”, but have truly been “found” in your abiding love and eternal joy.

Companions for the Journey

Adapted from “first Impressions”, a service of the Southern Dominican Province:

In today’s gospel the Sadducees raise the question of the resurrection and the kind of life we will have in the next world. While their inquiry seems less than sincere and more a way to trip up Jesus, wouldn’t we worshipers like more details about our future home? We certainly have lost enough loved ones and felt the anguish of separation. Where are they now? Are they alright? Will we see them again? When a child asks where a recently deceased grandmother has gone we say, “She has gone to heaven to be with grandpa.” We were told as children to be good so that we would go to heaven. We teach children that heaven is where God lives with all the angels and saints. The saints----those recognized by our community as significant models of humanity; those who give us a glimpse of what we humans can become. Someday we will be there with them and enjoy each other’s company. Heaven--- it’s our goal in life. It animates our good efforts and comforts us in the death of our loved ones.

The ideal state of bliss we call heaven enters the thoughts and conversations of even our secular lives. When people are really happy they say, “It’s like heaven on earth.” “How was the apple pie?” we ask. “Heavenly!” comes the response, “Just perfect, couldn’t be better.” Couldn’t be better—nice summary for what we believe about heaven. It is the very best place to be, no hint of defect, no unhappiness, no end of bliss. We enter a church, look up and see a huge mural. It depicts God, surrounded by the heavenly hosts and an array of famous saints from Jewish and Christian tradition. Not a trace of darkness or a hint of evil. It’s heaven.

Considering heaven’s importance in our religious imagination and iconography one would think there would be abundant descriptions in the scriptures of our resurrected life in heaven. Of course there are parables about “the Kingdom of heaven,” but they have more to do with this life than the next. The scriptures are strangely agnostic about the details of what is waiting for us after death. Our traditional explanations of heaven have been of little help. Resurrected life is described in static terms. We will, we were told, enjoy the “beatific vision.” I must admit, when I first heard that in a college theology class, it sounded boring to me, lacking in energy and vitality, filled with sameness—for eternity.

So, I imagine the Sadducees’ question to Jesus in today’s Gospel might stir up interest in our listeners. It does in me. Yes, Jesus, what’s it going to be like when we are resurrected? Will we have fun? Will we be better singers, always singing on pitch? Run faster? Tell really funny jokes and always get a big laugh? Will I always have my mother’s tomato sauce and pasta for an eternity of Sunday dinners? (That would really be heaven!) If we were physically challenged in this life, will we have functioning arms and legs in the next? And to approach the problem posed by the Sadducees, if we were widowed, remarried and loved both spouses, to whom will we be married in the next life? And if a woman were married to a miserable son of a gun in this life, will she have to stay married to him in the next or could she try another?

The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection. They taught that only the first five books of the bible, those attributed to Moses, were normative for the Jews. Since there is no teaching in these books about resurrection and since Jewish teaching on the subject was still evolving, the Sadducees did not believe in it. The problem they present to Jesus of the seven husbands was an attempt to show by logic the absurdity of the notion of resurrection. They may be asking Jesus a question, but they have already made up their minds. No matter what Jesus says, he is not going to influence them. Nevertheless, Jesus is gracious and treats their question seriously. Life in the next world, he says, will be radically different from this. Drawing conclusions from this life, or extending notions from this to the next, just won’t work. This is an inadequate and useless approach. In early Jewish thinking, before the notions of resurrection developed, this was the only life conceivable. Marriage and having children would be the way to perpetuate one’s family name. Your life continued on in your children and so marriage was essential. Thus there developed the “levirate marriage” (Deut. 25: 5-10). A brother would marry the widow of his childless brother. If they had children, they would be children of the first husband, the deceased brother. It was a law with the good intention of keeping the family memory alive, and preventing the loss of a family to the whole people of Israel.

But in the resurrection, Jesus explains, we will all be children of God. God does not need marriage to make us into God’s children; resurrection is an act of God and a free gift to us. “They are the children of God!” Jesus knows his biblical roots and to match the Sadducees’ reference to Deuteronomy, he draws on Exodus 3: 6 to affirm God as the God of the living. What is it going to be like in the resurrected life? If only Jesus had given us the floor plans of our heavenly abode. But he hasn’t. Even though he doesn’t satisfy our curiosity, he has done much more for us. He has assured us that God will not stop being our God at death. If we have had God’s life here, we will have that life in our resurrected state.

We can’t prove resurrection by our rational arguments. What we read in these gospel stories is that Jesus went through death and came back. In some ways his resurrected body was like ours–he ate, talked and cooked fish for his disciples. But in other ways he was completely different —he could appear in a locked room, disappear before his Emmaus table companions and not be immediately recognized by even his closest friends. Something was so very different about him.

When the scriptures do speak about our resurrected lives they are rich in describing our being together in final joy. We will “know” one another--- “know” God--- and be “known” by God. Knowing, in the scriptures means a full experience of another in a rich and intimate relationship. Heaven isn’t static after all, but an intense sharing in life. We don’t know what that means, but we do get glimpses of it here and when we do, we know we will not be bored!

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

He is not God of the dead, but of the living.

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

Have you ever been in a discussion with another who was just in the argument because she liked verbal sparring, or because he was out to advance his point of view, but not open to a true dialogue on the issue or not interested in considering another opinion?
How did you handle it?
Have you ever been the immovable or deliberately argumentative one?
What did you learn from each other in these encounters?
Were any of you struck by the sense that a good part of this discussion centered around the issue of whose possession the woman would be in the next life?
Describe your first experience of death.
What are some of the things you have been taught about death?
What are three things you believe about death?
Does your belief focus more on heaven or hell?
On this earthly journey of mine, what am I investing my energies in?
Have I spent more time shaping my resume or shaping my soul?
What do I think God will remember me for?
When fellow parishioner Catherine Wolff was writing a book about the afterlife, she asked me what I thought about heaven. Snarkily, I said: “I don’t think about it much, because you have to be dead to get there.”
Do you think about heaven?
What do you think it will be like?
What are three things you believe about life after death?
What are your doubts about death and the afterlife?
What does “resurrection” mean to you?
Belief in the resurrection—or the lack of it, how does this affect your daily thoughts and actions?
From Daniel Harrington, S.J.:
Do you believe in life after death?
What is the “communion of saints”?
Do you ever reflect on being a member of same?
How does this affect your life?
What is Jesus asking us to trust about God’s love?
“God is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living” What does this mean to you?
Tony DeMello, S.J. wrote that “To see life as it truly is, nothing helps so much as the reality of death”. What do you think he meant? As he suggests, does the reality of death teach us to live in the moment? How?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Augustinian Style/Memory:

Spend some time during the month of November communing with someone who has gone before you. Re-live the memories you shared, and share your current joys and challenges. Then pray each day this week in thanksgiving for the presence of this person in your life. Pray also for anyone facing death at this time, that they may have the comfort of knowing they will be joining those they love.

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

This passage from the Book of Daniel in the Jewish Scriptures, demonstrates that a lot of Jews believed at least in a final resurrection. Have you heard any of this before? Have you asked yourself whether you believe in this concept or not? What does it have to do, if anything, with the notion of individual life after death?

At that time there shall arise Michael, the great prince, guardian of your people; It shall be a time unsurpassed in distress since nations began until that time. At that time your people shall escape, everyone who is found written in the book. Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake; some shall live forever, others shall be an everlasting horror and disgrace. But the wise shall shine brightly like the splendor of the firmament, And those who lead the many to justice shall be like the stars forever.

Now, read the following passage from Revelation (7:14-17) in the Christian Scriptures. How does it compare with the reading from Daniel? Which one seems more comforting? Is it how you imagine life after death to be?

After this I had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue. They stood before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne, and from the Lamb." All the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They prostrated themselves before the throne, worshiped God, and exclaimed: "Amen. Blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving, honor, power, and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen." Then one of the elders spoke up and said to me, "Who are these wearing white robes, and where did they come from?" I said to him, "My lord, you are the one who knows." He said to me, "These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress; 8 they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. "For this reason they stand before God's throne and worship him day and night in his temple. The one who sits on the throne will shelter them. They will not hunger or thirst anymore, nor will the sun or any heat strike them. For the Lamb who is in the center of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to springs of life-giving water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

A Meditation in the Augustinian Style/Relationship:

Barbara Brown Taylor, commenting on this passage, says that, after all is said and done, the resurrection really isn’t about us at all:

I think it is about God, and to focus on our own faith or lack of faith in it may be to miss the point altogether. Resurrection is not about our own faithfulness. It is a radical claim about the faithfulness of God, who will not abandon the bodies of his [sic] beloved. That is what Jesus is getting at in his answer to the Sadducees. Never mind marriage, he says first of all. Marriage is how we preserve our own lives in this world, but in the world to come that will not be necessary anymore. We will all be wed to God–the God who is able to make children out of dust, out of dry bones, out of the bits and pieces of genuine love we are able to scrape up over a lifetime of trying—“ for he is God not of the dead, but of the living, for to him all of them are alive.”

Does this insight change your personal views about life after death? Have you ever considered the role of your religious and familial community in your everlasting life? What can you do to support others in your lie as they live out their earthly mission? What comfort can you offer those who have lost someone? And finally, spend some time thinking of God's joy at our resurrected life, of God's desire to be with us always. Compose a psalm of your own expressing your trust in God's everlasting love and fidelity.

A Meditation in the Ignatian Style/Imagination:

When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. Martha said to Jesus, 'Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.' Jesus said to her, 'Your brother will rise again.' Martha said to him, 'I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.' Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?' She said to him, 'Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.'

Imagine that you are Martha, who has just lost a beloved brother. Imagine meeting Jesus who was a little late in getting to his friend and there did not save him from death. How would you have responded to Jesus? How would you treat Lazarus after he returned to life? What would you want to ask him?

Poetic Reflections:

Read the following two poems. Which is closer to your feelings?

Birago Diop, A Muslim poet from Senegal, sums up his convictions about those who have gone before us:

Those who are dead have never gone away, They are in the shadows darkening around, They are in the shadows fading into day, The dead are not under the ground. They are in the trees that quiver, They are in the woods that weep, They are in the waters of the rivers, They are in the waters that sleep. They are in the crowds, they are in the homestead. The dead are never dead.

Raymond Carver has a different perspective:

Fear of seeing a police car pull into the drive. Fear of falling asleep at night. Fear of not falling asleep. Fear of the past rising up. Fear of the present taking flight. Fear of the telephone that rings in the dead of night. Fear of electrical storms. Fear of the cleaning woman who has a spot on her cheek! Fear of dogs I've been told won't bite. Fear of anxiety! Fear of having to identify the body of a dead friend. Fear of running out of money. Fear of having too much, though people will not believe this. Fear of psychological profiles. Fear of being late and fear of arriving before anyone else. Fear of my children's handwriting on envelopes. Fear they'll die before I do, and I'll feel guilty. Fear of having to live with my mother in her old age, and mine. Fear of confusion. Fear this day will end on an unhappy note. Fear of waking up to find you gone. Fear of not loving and fear of not loving enough. Fear that what I love will prove lethal to those I love. Fear of death. Fear of living too long. Fear of death. I've said that.

Closing Prayer

Teach me to go to this country beyond words and beyond names.
Teach me to pray on this side of the frontier, here where these woods are.
I need to be led by you.
I need my heart to be moved by you.
I need my soul to be made clean by your prayer.
I need my will to be made strong by you.
I need the world to be saved and changed by you.
I need you for all those who suffer, who are in prison, in danger, in sorrow.
I need you for all the crazy people.
I need your healing hand to work always in my life.
I need you to make me, as you made your Son, a healer, a comforter, a savior.
I need you to name the dead.
I need you to help the dying cross their particular rivers.
I need you for myself whether I live or die.
It is necessary.
Amen.

—“Litany” by Thomas Merton

Weekly Reflections

32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, November 6, 2022