Considering death is difficult; we may feel like pushing the subject away. But the Church, in her wisdom, sets aside November as a month where we can have a safe space to think about “the last things:” death, judgment, heaven, hell, the saints, the poor souls in purgatory, the death of this age, and Christ’s second coming in glory. In this Sunday’s Gospel reading, the Sadducees challenged Jesus about the resurrection of the body. What a patient, logical answer He gave in response to their convoluted story about the seven brothers. Basically, He points out that they are focusing on the wrong thing. Heaven will be so much different—and better!—than what we can imagine: “What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor 2:9, cf Is 64:3).
Jesus’s message to them is one of hope. He tells them that “those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead…are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise” (Lk 20:35-36). If we have accepted God as our Father, then He has given us the “power to become children of God” (Jn 1:12). We are the ones who will rise! Like the brother in the first reading, we can proclaim, “the King of the universe will raise us up to live again forever” (2 Mac 7:9).
In only two weeks the Church year will end with the solemnity titled Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. Think about that: Jesus, our brother, is the King of the entire universe. As God’s children, and through the death and resurrection of Christ, we too will rise again and reign with Him. “If we have died with him we shall also live with him; if we persevere we shall also reign with him” (2 Tim 2: 11-12).
Abba, Father, I know that I am your beloved child. I believe that I will rise again after my death, not by my own power, but by the gift of Your Son’s death on the cross. Help me to be unafraid of death and instead live in the deep knowledge that I will rise again.
“Death is swallowed up in victory.
Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”
1 Cor 15: 54-55