Cycle C - Year II:  

6 November 2016: Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time

(Liturgical color: Green)

Gospel: Please read  Luke  20:27-38

A Life that is heavenbound!

Is your life earthbound or heavenbound? Does everything end on earth, or do we look forward to an afterlife? Sometimes, it is hard to recognize spiritual realities because we try to picture heaven like an earthly image.

Just few days ago the Christian world celebrated two important solemnities: All Saints Day on November 1 in honor of all the saints, known and unknown; and the Feast of All Souls Day on November 2, to pay respect and remember the souls of those who died ahead of us. Celebrating the feasts of the saints and departed souls is based in our belief that life on earth does not end in death but it is only changed.

Belief in heaven, and in the afterlife, is the message of this Sunday's liturgy. In the Gospel Jesus offers us a vision about the beauty of eternity.

St. Luke narrates an encounter between our Lord Jesus Christ and the Sadducees. The latter did not believe in the resurrection of the dead nor in afterlife. Their religion was based on an earthly image of heaven, based on their own experience of this world and what they see with their naked eyes.

The encounter was really to test Jesus with a question on marriage in

order to make His teaching in the resurrection look ridiculous. They pose a hypothetical question to Jesus purposely to trap Him: A woman who was a widow of seven brothers who died one after another but left her childless. "Now at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be?", they asked Jesus.

But Jesus told the Sadducees that eternity and this present life are very different. Marriage is for this earthly life and doesn't continue into the next life. In the resurrection, there is no marrying or being given in marriage. For God will be all in all.

In other words, in the next life our relationship is not with man or woman, or even with each other, but only with God Himself. Heaven is ultimately about seeing God, and we call this the "beatific vision". The beatific vision is more than simply "seeing" God. We will actually possess Him and He possesses us.  Thus, the beatific vision is about a complete and total union with God.

Now this does not mean that we will not see each other again in heaven. We will, and in heaven we will also enjoy the companionship of Mary and the all the saints and the angels, including our family members and friends who preceded us into that kingdom. Husbands and wives who have faithfully loved and served one another will be united with each other once again, and it will be a more perfect communion of life and love.

Our Lord Jesus Christ and His victory over death when He rose from the tomb is really the ultimate proof of our resurrection.  So Jesus asks us today, "Do you believe in the resurrection?"

In sum, today's liturgy invites us to reflect on death and the afterlife.

For non-believers, there is no afterlife. Death is the end of everything. No matter how wealthy or healthy you are, or how powerful, how famous, how many friends you have, when death comes, it becomes a disaster! Because everything is wiped away! We will fall into nothingness. So then enjoy as much pleasure as you can each day while you are still alive. For there is no tomorrow after death.

But for Christians, death is just a passage, a transition to a more perfect life, a life with God Himself. Because we are destined for eternal joy in the loving presence of the Creator. It has to be different from this life we experience now, so much better indeed. It is what we are originally created for from the beginning of time, until Adam and Eve sinned. 

The Good News is that at the end of the age, Jesus will redeem the whole of creation and everything will be good as it was from the very beginning. But we must watch out that in our earthly journey we follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ in order to be able to enter into the heavenly kingdom of the Father, and thus not fall into the pit of hell.

Let me end my reflection with my favorite mantra in philosophy: "The unknown of the known makes me tremble. But the known of the unknown gives me hope." My theology professor puts it differently but the same message, "The not yet of the already makes me tremble. But the already of the not yet gives me hope."

A blessed Sunday to us all. And thank you for a moment with God.

Ad Jesum per Mariam!