WHO WILL RISE?

THIRTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME. YEAR C.
November 11, 2007.
(First Reading: 2 Maccabees 7:1-2, 9-14)
(Second Reading: 2 Thessalonians 2:16-3:5) (Gospel: Luke 20:27-38)


WHO WILL RISE?

Responding to those who deny that there is a resurrection, Jesus says: "The children of God are the ones who will rise" (Luke 20:36).

The ones who give will rise are those who live as children of God, those who live in unity with God and with one another.

The expression "children of God" reflects the most thorough and genuine union whose equivalent in human experience is known as the parent-child unity(1).

Human experience shows that there is no stronger unity than that between a parent and a child. Jesus uses that human experience to reveal to us the nature of the unity between God and human beings.

Jesus calls and relates to God as his Father, and we are to do the same. This is Jesus' revelation to mankind that God is our Father and we are his children. Furthermore, the unity between God and human beings is to be reflected in the unity between human beings themselves.

The gospel today presents us with a question related to the need of human beings to have descendants. (Even though the question involves the issue of marriage, the ultimate reason for marriage, as presented by the gospel, is the need to have descendants).

Those who live as children of God are never childless.
Every person's descendant is a descendant of humankind. In other words, the descendants of a couple in one part of the world are the descendants of people anywhere for they all are children of God.

Now, if a man dies leaving no biological children, how can he say that his wife is left childless? Neither the deceased man nor his widow are ever childless, for the children of the world are their children. The joys and responsibilities of biological parents are the same as the joys and responsibilities resulting from the unity with all the human beings of the world.

And, while biological paternity is limited by the boundaries of physical procreation, the paternity resulting from the bonds of unity among human beings has no limits in time or space. A person who lives as a child of God is united totally with other human beings anywhere, in any time.

The unity among the children of God extends beyond biological birth and death.
Let us explain: Before a man is born his parents plan for him, make preparations for him, place their hopes in him; in other words, he is united to his parents before he is born. And after his biological death the fruits of his work will sustain the life and progress of coming generations; thus he remains united to his fellow human beings beyond his dead.

Those who live as children of God, therefore have the ability to project themselves to the past and to the future(2).

The children of God overcome the barriers of the present world. Jesus reassures us that the children of God do overcome the barriers of "this age" and "are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead" (Luke 20:35).

What are the barriers of "this age"?:
The injustices and divisions which prevent human beings from living as children of God. Indeed, our world ("this age") promotes division over unity, brute force over rational deliberation, repression over respect, deceit over truthfulness; our world promotes the accumulation of wealth in the hands of a few at the expense of the impoverishment of countless human beings.

Those who perpetuate "this age" of injustice and division do not believe in and do not expect resurrection, for they make themselves unworthy "to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead", for they do not live as children of God, and therefore, lack life within themselves(3). The injustice and division of this age cannot continue into the "coming age".

How do we overcome the barriers of the present world?
By living in unity with all human beings, as members of one universal family, as children of God.
And, "the children of God... are the ones who will rise".
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FOOTNOTES:
(1) The parent-child relation we are referring to is that where the parent is fully committed to the care and well-being of the child not because it is mandated by any law but because the child is "flesh of his flesh", that is to say, parent and child relate to each other as if they were one. The unity between the two is seen in instances such as the case where a mother deprives herself of food in order to ensure that her child does not go hungry; or the case where the parent places herself at risk in order to prevent any harm to her child; or the case of the parent who gives up her life to preserve her child's life.
(2) Jesus says: "That the dead will rise even Moses made known in the passage about the bush, when he called 'Lord' the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive" (Luke 20:37-38). Those who are children of God are always alive - in the past, in the present and in the future - for, after experiencing biological death, they continue to live as children of God because to God "all are alive".
(3) Those who perpetuate division and injustice have established a "world order" which distorts life; they present as life what in reality is death, for instance, they engage in wars of aggression claiming that it is necessary for the "life" of their nation; they impose brutal economic sanctions upon weaker nations claiming that is necessary to eliminate ideological differences perceived as detrimental to the "world order"; they kill the unborn claiming that it is necessary to safeguard the "rights" of the mother.