Astounded by the courage and faith.

Homily

32^nd Sunday of Ordinary Time – Year C

6^th November 2022

The focus of today’s readings is the Resurrection. For the seven brothers being faithful to God was more important than their lives because they believed in the resurrection. For the Sadducees, there was no such thing as the resurrection. This was it. They did not believe it. There was no life in them. The same as what the fourth brother told his tormentors: “For you, there can be no resurrection, no new life”.

The King and his men were astounded by the courage and faith of the brothers and their mother. For not only, did the mother have to witness all her sons being tortured and put to death, one by one, but she also lost her life to the corruption and brutality of the king.

What endured was their faith. The mother and her sons all believed in God’s promise that they would all be raised by him. So, to the family, death had no meaning because they were alive in their faith.

St Paul prays that the Thessalonians, and we, are given the strength to continue to believe and have faith in Our Lord Jesus Christ, to be confident to talk about what we believe with others, and never to lose heart. Especially when those who do not have faith attempt to put us down and try to force us to go against what we believe.

Like the king in the first reading, many in this world have their hearts hardened and will continue to do evil, enacting even harsher cruelties. We see this in our news feeds as Russian weaponry destroys Ukrainian cities and towns to break the spirit of the people, with the potential hardship that will be brought on by Winter. We see the anguish of young Russian men finding themselves conscripted to fight against those who were their brothers and sisters yet given inappropriate clothing or equipment. To their leaders, they are just numbers. We see young Russian men and women who protest against the war, even by simply holding up a blank piece of paper, finding themselves punished with 15 years of prison.

Closer to home, we see people struggling to pay bills, and trying to find food. The supplies to charities are drying up because those who normally give are struggling themselves. In some way or another, we are all finding life to be tough.

Frustrated, the cruel king, tried to persuade the mother to get her sons to break to save their lives. Though she had suffered the pains of motherhood to bring them into the world, her advice was to trust in God who had created them and given them life. She told her sons not to fear the executioner. They all believed in the resurrection.

The Sadducees tried to trick Jesus. In their cleverness, they tried to disprove the resurrection. Using a story of seven brothers they asked Jesus who would be married to the widow at the resurrection. In Jewish tradition, a man’s widow was to marry his brother to help bring up the children. Each brother, though married to the same woman died without children, until at last the woman died. The Sadducees were more concerned about worldly possessions, instead of building treasures in heaven.

In this world, people marry. Their children become their heirs. In Heaven, we are all children of God because we will be resurrected from the dead, becoming children of the Living God.

The Gospel of Luke tells us Mary treasured all the things that happened in Jesus’s life. She even told the angel Gabriel that nothing was impossible for God. She told Elizabeth the Almighty had done great things for her. She treasured what the shepherds told her about the heavenly host when they came to visit her child in a manger. She watched him grow.

The Gospel of John tells us Mary instructed the servants at the Wedding Feast of Cana to do as Jesus said, knowing what he could do. She was beside him as he was led to Golgotha, carrying the cross after being scourged. Mary had to endure seeing her son nailed to the cross and saw his pain as the cross was hoisted upright.

Knowing he was approaching death, Jesus placed Mary in John’s care as though he was her son, and she was his mother. Mary put her trust in God. She believed and three days later the tomb his body was placed in was empty because Our Lord Jesus Christ had been resurrected. He conquered death and all who believe in Him have eternal life.

• Likes
• Download2
• Share