{"id":1231,"date":"2013-11-10T09:55:32","date_gmt":"2013-11-10T14:55:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1231"},"modified":"2013-11-10T09:55:32","modified_gmt":"2013-11-10T14:55:32","slug":"homily-32nd-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/homily-32nd-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-c\/","title":{"rendered":"Homily – 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C"},"content":{"rendered":"

32nd<\/sup> Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C<\/a>
\n2 Maccabees 7:1-2, 9-14
\n2 Thessalonians 2:16-3:5
\nLuke 20:27-38
\nNovember 10, 2013<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Resurrection is a central mystery of our faith.\u00a0 The Resurrection is essential to who we are as Christians.\u00a0 At Easter we proclaim \u201cJesus Christ is Risen today.\u201d<\/p>\n

But what does the Resurrection really mean for us?<\/p>\n

The Sadducees do not believe in the Resurrection.\u00a0 They said they couldn\u2019t find it in the five books of Moses that form the Torah.\u00a0 At the end of today’s gospel Jesus does point out that it is in the Torah.\u00a0 At the burning bush, God is identified as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.\u00a0 Our God is a god of the living, not the dead.\u00a0 So this implies a resurrection.<\/p>\n

Yes, they come to Jesus with a question of what the Resurrection will be like.\u00a0 We should ask why, if they don\u2019t believe in the Resurrection, they would ask what it will be like.<\/p>\n

Two thoughts here.\u00a0 First they might be trying to trap Jesus or they might be trying to show how there can\u2019t be a Resurrection.\u00a0 They figure if there were a resurrection, life would just continue as is, and the woman would have seven husbands.\u00a0 And having children as heirs won\u2019t be important because we would live on.\u00a0 So, to them the idea of a resurrection would seem absurd.<\/p>\n

There lies the problem.\u00a0 What is the Resurrection like?\u00a0 We believe in it.\u00a0 We know we will be with God in Heaven.\u00a0 That is what we know for sure.\u00a0 The Book of Revelation tells us about John\u2019s visions of Heaven but they can be difficult to interpret.<\/p>\n

Sometimes we talk about what Heaven will be like.\u00a0 Such conversations generally center on having our favorite things.\u00a0 Would that mean we would all have our own Heaven because each of us has different favorite things?<\/p>\n

No, there is one Heaven and it isn\u2019t set up the way we would make it be.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t \u201chave it your way\u201d in Heaven.\u00a0 Heaven is what God calls it to be.<\/p>\n

When I took a class in seminary about death, Heaven, hell, and Purgatory, we read a book written in the late 1970\u2019s by Fr. Joseph Ratzinger\u00a0(who became Bishop Ratzinger\u00a0\u00e0 Cardinal Ratzinger \u00e0 Pope Benedict XVI).\u00a0 There was an extensive section on Heaven where he discussed different thoughts about Heaven.\u00a0 Yes, we try to put Heaven in earthly terms.\u00a0 To have a conversation about Heaven, we have to talk about in by comparing it to what we experienced in this world.\u00a0 In his book, he says the one thing we know about Heaven is that we will be with God.\u00a0 What more can we ask for?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s called faith.<\/p>\n

Our faith in the Resurrection should change the way we look at things.\u00a0 If there is no resurrection, then won\u2019t this world be all that matters.\u00a0 Shouldn\u2019t we do everything we can to stay alive?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not what we heard in Maccabees.\u00a0 The people are facing a severe persecution.\u00a0 They are told that they must give up their god to worship the way the emperor dictates.<\/p>\n

They refuse.\u00a0 So they are tortured.\u00a0 To stop the torture, they could have just renounced their faith.\u00a0 They did not.<\/p>\n

Why?<\/p>\n

Because their faith was important to them.\u00a0 They knew they faced an eternity with God.\u00a0 They knew the miserable torture was nothing compared to what God had to offer.\u00a0 So, they kept their faith over earthly ways.<\/p>\n

How would we respond to torture and persecution?\u00a0 Of course, it might seem we don\u2019t have to worry about such things but there are places in the world where even today, people are persecuted and martyred for our faith.<\/p>\n

In the United States we do not face extreme persecution.\u00a0 But we are challenged in trying to live out our faith.\u00a0 Right now our bishops are challenging the President\u2019s health care requirements that are in conflict with our faith.<\/p>\n

Some people say it isn\u2019t that important.\u00a0 Why bother fighting?\u00a0 The answer is because Jesus stood up for us on the Cross.\u00a0 We must be willing to stand up for Jesus.<\/p>\n

We come here today because we believe in the Resurrection.\u00a0 What does it mean to you?\u00a0 What does it motivate you to do differently?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C 2 Maccabees 7:1-2, 9-14 2 Thessalonians 2:16-3:5 Luke 20:27-38 November 10, 2013   The Resurrection is a central mystery of our faith.\u00a0 The Resurrection is essential to who we are as Christians.\u00a0 At Easter we proclaim \u201cJesus Christ is Risen today.\u201d But what does the Resurrection really mean …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Homily – 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-jR","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1231"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1231"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1232,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1231\/revisions\/1232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}