The Sánchez Archives THIRTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME Year C

By
Patricia Datchuck Sánchez

Death and Life

2 MACCABEES 7:1-2, 9-14
2 THESSALONIANS 2:16-3:5
LUKE 20:27-38

Death is never easy; the untimed and unknown end of life is a fearsome, but reliable aspect of the human experience. However, the inevitable experience of death, both by the dying and by those they leave behind, is very much determined by their perception of this great mystery. Is death the final act or curtain call of life or is dying a rite of passage from this world to a new mode of existence? As the present liturgical year ebbs away and yields to a new season of Advent, the gathered assembly is afforded another opportunity to consider both death and life in light of the Christ-event. Jesus Christ, who became incarnate, and who lived and died in full embrace of the human experience, faced, for our sake, the terror of death and conquered its meaninglessness and finality on the cross. Because of God’s saving love, spoken loudly and without reserve in Jesus, death is no longer the last word but the beginning of a new and exciting conversation that will never end.

Although the perception of death afforded us in Jesus, lends comfort and hope to believers, it was not always so. A consensus of scholars assert that no discernible hope of life after death is evidenced in the Judaeo-Christian tradition before the second century B.C.E. As John L. McKenzie (“Aspects of the Old Testament Thought”, The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs: 1990) explained, prior to that time, the constitution of human nature, as understood in Israelite thought, revealed no principle of survival. Neither “soul” nor “spirit” was thought to be a component entity that survived death. The human person was -nephesh-, i.e., a body animated by the breath of God. At death, the breath returned to God and the -nephesh was no more; the body remained in Sheol, which was no more than a vast tomb where the dead lay inert (Job 10:21; 17:13-16). Sheol was not survival but a denial of survival for all, both good and evil.

In late post-exilic times, however, and due in part to the influences of Greek philosophy and anthropology, and certain Persian doctrines, a fuller understanding of the afterlife emerged in Judaism. Daniel 12:1-2 (ca 175 B.C.E.) and 2 Maccabees 7, from which today’s first reading has been excerpted, are believed to be among the earliest references to the evolving concept of death as the door to resurrected life, wherein the just would be rewarded with joy and the wicked would receive retribution for their sins. Nearer to the Christian era, the author of Wisdom (ca 60 B.C.E.) further developed the understanding of immortality; however, not all Jews shared his beliefs or those expressed in Daniel and 2 Maccabees.

In his writings, the Jewish historian, Josephus (37-100 C.E.), detailed the differing opinions among his contemporaries. The Sadducees, who are featured in today’s gospel, did not believe in life after death. Accepting only the written scriptures as normative, the Sadducees rejected all later developments in theology, e.g., belief in angels, resurrection of the dead, etc. Therefore the question they posed to Jesus was certainly not borne of a sincere desire to learn, but rather, was an effort to entrap him. The Pharisees, who accepted the Law, Prophets, Writings as well as the oral law as normative, did believe in an immortal soul that would receive reward and retribution in the next life. These beliefs enabled many of them to accept Jesus, his teachings, and his resurrection as a pledge of the joy they would one day share with him in eternity.

When Saul, the Pharisee, became Paul, the Christian, he spent his life in sharing the good news that the sting of death had been removed. As the earliest of the New Testament authors, Paul laid the theological foundation for the early church’s evolving understanding of the resurrection. As Jerome Neyrey (“Eternal Life”, Harper’s Bible Dictionary, Harper and Row Publishers, San Francisco: 1985) has noted, subsequent scriptural writers contributed a variety of interpretations as to the character and quality of life after death. Mark regarded Jesus’ resurrection as the vindication of the Son of Man (Mark 14:62); believers in Jesus hoped to share in a similar vindication when their life’s struggles came to an end. The Johannine Jesus offered his followers eternal life, not just in the future, but here and now: “who hears my word. . . has eternal life and does not come into judgment but has passed from death to life” (John5:24). The author of 1 Peter described the resurrection as “a new birth to a living hope” and “an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading” (1 Peter 1:3-4).

With these, the insights of our forerunners in the faith to inspire and guide us, we can look upon life’s hardest and most inevitable reality as a vindication, as a new birth to a living hope and as an inheritance that will never end.

2 MACCABEES 7:1-2, 9-14

Samuel Butler (d. 1680 C.E.) once wrote, “Brevity is very good, when we are, or are not understood” (Hudibras 1:1, 1663). Horace (65-8 B.C.E.), on the other hand, wrote, “When I struggle to be terse, I end by being obscure” (Ars Poetica). As regards this excerpted pericope from 2 Maccabees which has so abbreviated the story of the martyrdom of the seven Jewish brothers, Horace appears to be the man of the hour. Although the shortening of this narrative has not obscured its tale of heroism, the author’s primary intention, viz., to outline a theology of martyrdom and the resurrection of the just, cannot be fully appreciated. Only when the witness given by each of the seven brothers before their death, along with that of their mother, is seen as a whole, will the reader understand what life after death meant to our second century B.C.E. ancestors in the faith (see 2 Maccabees 7:6, 9, 11, 14, 16-17, 18-19, 22-23, 28-29, 30-36).

Scholars agree that there is a discernible progression of thought in the brother’s testimony, e.g., (1) it is better to die than to sin (7:2); (2) God will vindicate the faithful and raise them to life with their broken bodies fully restored (7:6, 9, 11); (3) the wicked will not know the joys of resurrected life but will be punished by God while they live (7:14, 17); (4) the just suffer because of their sins as will the wicked (7:18-19); (5) the death of the faithful has impetratory power and expiatory value (7:37-38).

No doubt, these insights were welcomed by the intended recipients of 2 Maccabees; the story of the brothers and the underlying promise of resurrection for the just served to edify and encourage those who were struggling to resist Hellenization. A process begun by Alexander the Great and continued by each successive Greek leader, the effort to permeate the world with the Greek mind and spirit was particularly invasive during the reign of Antiochus Ephiphanes IV.

Today’s first reading illustrates some of the gruesome atrocities endured by those Jews who resisted the influence of the Greeks. However, there were some Jews, particularly the more wealthy and better educated, who welcomed Hellenism as a necessary aspect of higher civilization; their “ecumenical” posture instigated and fueled the resistance among the more traditionalist Jews and sparked the movement known as the Hasidim. These Hasidim or “pious ones” were described as devoted to the Law (1 Maccabees 2:42) and were blamed for keeping the rebellion alive (2 Maccabees 14:6). Many scholars believe that the Qumran community and, later, the Pharisaic party could trace their origins to the Hasidic movement. Fierce defenders of their faith, their example and spirituality continues to inspire those who refuse to allow their traditions to be diluted, altered or negated.

2 THESSALONIANS 2:16-3:5

Accepted as authentically Pauline until the eighteenth century C.E., 2 Thessalonians has been the subject of considerable dispute, the result of which is that scholars are almost evenly divided. Those who attribute the letter to Paul, assign it a date ca. 51-52 C.E. and suggest that he wrote to offer the assurance to the living that those who had died would still have a share in the parousia, and to calm certain exaggerated expectations that had arisen due to his first letter. In 1 Thessalonians, Paul was so enthusiastic as regards Jesus’ second advent that many abandoned their everyday routines to prepare for the celebration. Without quashing their eagerness for the Lord’s coming, the author of 2 Thessalonians advised a more practical means of preparedness, viz., to tend to the responsibilities of everyday living with devotedness and dedication while waiting to welcome Jesus, whenever and however, he should choose to return. Those who believe 2 Thessalonians to be a pseudonymous work by a Pauline disciple, assign it a date late in the first century C.E., when Christians were undergoing severe trials (persecution by Domitian?, see 2 Thessalonians 1:4, 6). Written as a source of encouragement, 2 Thessalonians exhorted the suffering to remain steadfast in their faith and to draw strength from their hope that when Jesus appeared again in glory, their persecutors would be punished and they, themselves, would be relieved of every affliction (2 Thessalonians 1:3-10).

Aware that prayer is a powerful prophylactic against every sort of affliction, the author of 2 Thessalonians was quick to pray for his charges and recommended that they join their efforts to his. Today’s second reading is comprised of three short prayers. In the first (2:16-17) and third prayers (3:5), the author prayed that his readers would remain constant in their commitment, bolstered by the knowledge that theirs was truly the work of the gospel. In the second prayer (3:1-4), the author requested that the community remember him and his ministry to God. Fully cognizant of the difficulties that both he and they would encounter (false teachers, confused and evil people, faithlessness), the early Christian author relied on the efficacy of intercessory prayer. He understood that his work was not solely his own but was an outgrowth of the believing community, united and supported by a continuous network of prayer. From the time the first disciples of Jesus took him at his word and gathered in his name, the praying community has been one of the greatest resources of the church and a force to be reckoned with. This force enables us to face life’s exigencies with hope and confidence. Prayer prepares us and equips us to welcome even that most dreaded moment of life and, in that moment, to embrace death as a passage through which we will come face to face with the God who calls us to life everlasting.

LUKE 20:27-38

Earlier in his gospel, the Lucan evangelist identified the animus that motivated Jesus’ interrogation by the Sadducees as well as several other confrontations that arose near the end of his ministry: “They watched him closely and sent agents pretending to be righteous who were to trap him in speech in order to hand him over to the authority and power of the governor” (Luke 20:20). Having failed to ensnarl Jesus in an argument about taxes (20:21-26), his opponents moved on to what they thought to be an even more controversial issue--religion.

When the Sadducees approached Jesus with a question about the resurrection, the ridiculousness of their argument was exceeded only by their insincerity. They themselves denied the possibility of life after death! Nevertheless, they attempted to find fault in Jesus and in his teachings with an argument which scholars call a reductio-ad-absurdum. Their protracted and highly improbable example (a woman marrying seven brothers) was based on the pentateuchal levirate law which provided for the marriage of a widow to her deceased husband’s brother. This law was meant to ensure the continuity of the family line (Genesis 38:8; Deuteronomy 25:5). But Jesus refused to become embroiled in a petty debate and in the end, it was his questioners who were reduced to absurdity. Wisely, Jesus countered the Sadducees by referencing an authority with whom even they could not find fault, viz., Moses. According to Jewish tradition, Moses was regarded as the originator of the Pentateuch. Anchoring himself solidly in Mosaic tradition, Jesus reminded the Sadducees of Moses’ encounter at the burning bush (Exodus 3), during which God was identified as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Although these heroes in the faith had lived and died over twelve centuries earlier, Jesus implied that they must somehow be alive, i.e. risen from death to life with God, because God is a God of the living, not of the dead. Luke Timothy Johnson (The Gospel of Luke, The Liturgical Press, Collegeville: 1991) has suggested that the last statement of today’s gospel, “All are alive to God” (v. 38) is a Lucan addition which could mean: (1) that God is eternal and all temporal realities are irrelevant such that all past figures are always present to God; or (2) that all who die will rise by God’s power. On the strength of this argument, Jesus challenged the Sadducees, who accepted Moses’ authority as regards levirate marriage, to accept the teaching about the resurrection of the dead under the same auspices.

As regards the character and quality of resurrected life, the Lucan Jesus explained that it was not a mere continuation of this life with its traditions (levirate law) and institutions (marriage) as the Sadducees’ argument implied. Rather, life beyond the passage of death is a new and transformed mode of existence wherein temporal rules and customs have no relevance. Those who have traversed death’s passage, by God’s power, are isangelos, i.e. like angels, and are no longer subject to death. Children of the resurrection, i.e., born of the resurrection, they are also children of God, i.e., born of the power of God.

Luke concluded his narrative without alluding to the Sadducees’ response to Jesus. However, in the verses immediately following this pericope, he shared the reaction of some of the scribes who were within earshot. These told Jesus “you have answered well” and then they fell silent, not daring to ask him anything else (vv. 39-40). We, too, often fall silent before the mystery of death but ours is a silence borne of peace and hope, because all of our questions about death and life have been asked and answered in the person and mission of Jesus.

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