Fr Antonio Pineda
ur world can be cruel, especially when we lose loved ones unexpectedly. While I was blessing graves a few days ago on All Souls’ Day, people told me how their loved ones died. A few were tragic stories. The pain that they felt may have eased with time, but it never really goes away. A loved one’s death never really leaves us completely. But if death has the last word, then life is a sorry tale and not the happily ever after that the fairy tales are famous for. Is this the way it really is?
Well, Christianity is no fairy tale, but it does believe that the story never ends and that eternal happiness is a reality. The Sadducees in this Sunday’s Gospel would not agree. They were the pragmatists of their day. They believed in God as the creator of the world, but they did not accept any kind of afterlife. They thought that only a shadowy existence remained when this life was done and to them it made sense to get the best deal that you could for yourself in the present life. They could collaborate with the powers that be, and so come to share in the privileges that power can bring. Wealth, comfort, position, honour, esteem – all these, they thought, could be yours if you play your cards right and if you stop all this nonsense about life beyond the grave.
And so, they challenged Jesus and his teachings on the afterlife were ridiculed and rebuffed. But Jesus had an answer for them. They believed in God, whom they called “the God of Abraham”. But what kind of God is a “God of the Dead”? No, God, if God exists at all, is God of the living, and death shall have no victory. When we die, we die in the Lord. God is greater than death, and greater than the tragedies that threaten to destroy our lives.
This is the faith that spurred St Paul to preach the Gospel of God’s love, as we see in the First Reading. He had personally seen the risen Lord. His motivation was powerful. He gave his life for the Lord and for the good news that he carried: Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. This news can indeed be an “inexhaustible comfort” for us, as St Paul writes, and our sure hope. Death has done its worst and has not won. So, as we live our lives in this world, let us think on the love God has for us and on the fortitude of Christ. Our Christian hope should make us brave and persevering, and practise God’s love towards all. As winter draws in and dark hours outnumber the light, let our faith light up the world around us, so that people can see the hope and love that is in Jesus Christ. Let the warmth of Christian love overcome the cold of the coming winter months. Yes, God is a God of the living which includes the homeless, the sick and the lonely. Let us pass on some of that “inexhaustible comfort” to them.