Homily for the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C. God will resurrect those who are faithful till the end.

Homily for the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C.
God will resurrect those who are faithful till the end.

Dear brethren in Christ, today’s 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time year C readings central theme is the topic of resurrection.

1. In the 1st reading (2 Maccabees 7:1-2, 9-14), the hope on the future resurrection spurred the brothers Maccabees to remain faithful to God till death.

• The seven brothers with their mother were arrested and tortured by the king who was forcing them to eat pork in violation of the Mosaic Law.
• The brothers, one by one, preferred to suffer the torture, instead of violating the Old Law, strengthened by their hope in the future resurrection: “It is my choice to die at the hands of men with the hope God gives of being raised up by him.”

2. In the Gospel, Jesus affirmed that God “is not a God of the dead, but of the living”

• He rewards those who believe in him with life everlasting, after the Sadducees who deny the existence of resurrection and the immortality of the soul came forward to pose him their query.
• The Navarre Bible Commentary to the Gospel of St. Luke 20:27-38 explains:

• “The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection of the body or the immortality of the soul. They came along to ask Jesus a question which is apparently unanswerable. According to the levirate law (cf. Deut 25: 5ff), if a man died without issue, his brother was duty bound to marry his widow to provide his brother with descendants. The consequences of this law would seem to give rise to a ridiculous situation at the resurrection of the dead.
• Our Lord replies by reaffirming that there will be a resurrection; and by explaining the properties of those who have risen again, the Sadducees’ argument simply evaporates. In this world people marry in order to continue their species: that is the primary aim of marriage. After the resurrection there will be no more marriage, because people will not die any more.
• Quoting Sacred Scripture (Ex 3:2. 6) our Lord shows the grave mistake the Sadducces make, and he argues: God is not the God of the dead but of the living, that s to say, there exists a permanent relationship between God and Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who have been dead for years. Therefore, although these just men have died as far as their bodies are concerned, they are alive, truly alive, in God — their souls are immortal — and they are awaiting the resurrection of their bodies.”

3. In the 2nd reading (2 Thes 2:16-3:5), St. Paul reminds the Thessalonians that God is faithful to his promises and has liberated men from evil.

“He will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one. We are confident of you in the Lord that what we instruct you, you are doing and will continue to do. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the endurance of Christ.”

With all these said, we can say that it is worthwhile to undergo all that can be suffered in this life, being faithful to God, for we are convinced that God never deceives nor breaks His promises.

• It is what Our Lord Jesus Christ underwent with His earthly life: His Resurrection came about through His Passion and Death on the Cross. The same thing should be in the life of a Christian if he were to be an authentic follower of Christ!

• What then would transient earthly sufferings be as compared to a never-ending life, joy and union with the Triune God in heaven?
• Hence, if we suffer due to whatever motive, and in our life as Christians, let us not complain: rather, let us offer them to God and unite ourselves with Jesus on the Cross to co-redeem with Him and convinced that with Him, if we are faithful till the end, we shall rise again. For God has triumphed over death, evil and injustice, and those who die in Him, will also rise with Him.

We Christians profess in the Creed our hope in the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. The importance of this final article of the baptismal Creed is obvious: it expresses the goal and purpose of God’s plan, the unfolding of which is described in the Creed If there is no resurrection, the whole structure of faith collapses, as St Paul states so forcefully. If the content of the words ‘life everlasting’ is uncertain for Christians, the promises contained in the Gospel and the meaning of creation and Redemption disappear, and even earthly life itself must be said to be deprived of all hope! We have to remind ourselves of the crucial fact that our soul is immortal, that it will be united to our physical body at the end of time, that the union of our body and soul has an eternal destiny. Everything which we undertake in this life ought to be oriented to this momentous truth: We belong to God completely, soul and body, flesh and bones, all our senses and faculties (St. Josemaria, Friends of God, 111) .

St Cyril of Jerusalem exhorts us: Respect your body since it is your good fortune to be a temple of the Holy Spirit. Do not stain your body …, and if perchance you have stained, it, purify it right away through penance. Clean it while you still have time (St Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechesis, IV, 25). Our body is destined to give glory to God once it is united with our soul. Let us then glorify God in our body in this life so that in the end, with God’s mercy, it will resurrect and be united with our soul, to give glory to God for eternity.

Almighty and merciful God, graciously keep from us all adversity, so that, unhindered in mind and body alike, we may pursue in freedom of heart the things that are yours. Through our Lord.
– COLLECT PRAYER, 32ND SUNDAY

Mother Mary, Queen of all saints, pray for us!

FOR TODAY’S 32nd SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR C MASS PRAYERS AND READINGS, CLICK

https://catholicsstrivingforholiness.org/32nd-sunday-of-ordinary-time-year-c-mass-prayers-and-readings/

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