10 November 2019. Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time. Cycle C.
A group of Sadducees, who do not believe in the resurrection, approached Jesus with a question. Once again, Jesus did not answer directly, but he responded to what really mattered, to what was behind the question: the resurrection of the dead.
There are among us many Christians who raise this issue. Perhaps the lack of knowledge of what is to come after our earthly life, not knowing how it will be, or how we will live, or how we will relate, makes them lean toward other options, which according to them, are more accessible to human understanding. We cannot imagine something that we do not know completely, something of which there is no evidence. From our way of being we cannot understand what is essentially a mystery. We attempt to embrace and understand with the human mind what is a matter of faith, trust in the word of the Lord. We only have the word of Jesus himself who tells us that God is a God of the living, not of the dead. That for him, we are all alive but in a different way.
But our faith, the certainty of the future resurrection, is key for a Christian. St. Paul tells us: “If Christ has not been raised, our faith is in vain; we are the most wretched of men and we remain in our sins… Eye has not seen, nor ear heard what God has prepared for his chosen ones …”
One cannot be a Christian without believing in the resurrection. Firstly, in that of Christ, then in that of all the others. We affirm it in the Creed.
The word of Jesus, when he told us of his resurrection and that of ours, should be enough for us. We also have the testimony of those who saw him risen and gave their lives for what they believed. Further, we have the example of those who, because of their faith, have made their lives the clearest testimony to the certainty of the resurrection.
Is our faith like this? Is this also our hope?
Juan Ramón Gómez Pascual, cmf
