In Death There's Life

Raphael's Resurrection of Jesus

At the 11th hour on the 11th day in the 11th month in 1918, WWI ended. Armistice Day then became Veterans Day now and on Monday, November 11 we honor our veterans, over 18 million men and women in our military.  Thank you, veterans, for your service to our country.

Here's a bit of simple wisdom I like: may your troubles be less, may your blessings be more, and may happiness come through your door. That's all in the Bible, and it’s my prayer for each of you, especially our veterans whom we honor this Veterans Day.

Sunday’s word of God in the book of Maccabees describes the martyrdom of a mother and her seven sons. They stood up for their beliefs and died for them. The author may be asking us, do we speak up for what's right?

The Letter to the Christian community at Thessaloniki urges the community to persevere in their discipleship with Jesus. God will strengthen them, the author writes, so they can fix their hearts on God. That’s a good message for us as well.

In the Gospel according to Luke, Jesus and the Sadducees talk about mortality and immortality. The Sadducees, who don’t believe in life after death, use an absurd example of seven brothers marrying the same sister-in-law and then dying. ”Who’s her husband in the next life?” they ask.

But Jesus distinguishes between “this age” and “the next age.” And even Moses had alluded to life after death.

From a Christian perspective, hidden in every Good Friday is the glory of Easter, when God transformed Jesus into a new awesome spiritualized body. The disciples knew him in the breaking of the bread. The resurrection was real, even though they couldn’t name his new mode of spiritual embodiment. And that new life one day will be ours.

Meantime, we have our Good Fridays. Sometimes problems seem to overwhelm us. In trying times, we may wonder, where is God? This eternal question is highlighted in the book of Job, in the Confessions of Saint Augustine, in the novels of Dostoevsky, and in recent best sellers.

As we reflect upon the human situation, we realize that our planet is wounded, so to speak. At times, suffering results from immoral behavior, from misuse of freedom, from tyranny. At other times, suffering results from natural disasters, from an incomplete universe, a universe in progress.
But ultimately, suffering is a mystery. How respond?

First, remember that God is always near us, closer to us than we are to ourselves. God forever seeks to bring us to the fullness of life.

Second, avoid negative judgments about ourselves. To think, I really deserve it, is a form of self-hatred. God loves us unconditionally.

Finally, remember that the mystery of inescapable suffering has healing and redemptive power. Jesus, through the mystery of his death and resurrection, healed us, reconnected us to God in friendship. Yes, our inescapable aches and pains, born with love, can bring forth new depths of life in ourselves and in others.

As we remember our deceased loved ones in November, we may ask, how do we come to terms with our own dying? Some counselors help people cope by encouraging them to begin drafting a letter to loved ones. This may highlight the most important gifts we can leave them: love, faith in God, hope in life eternal, compassion, forgiveness, and gratitude. This is not the end, but a beginning.

Service and Sacrifice

Here Rests in Honored Glory an American Soldier Known but to God

This Sunday is Veterans Day. One hundred years ago, at the 11^th hour on the 11^th day of the 11^th month, the first World War ended. Irving Berlin, a Russian immigrant, became a U.S. citizen that year and composed the great hymn/prayer God Bless America in 1918.

Today we honor all of our Veterans for their service and sacrifice.

The word of God today coincidentally challenges us to trust God and to be generous. A non-Jew or so-called Gentile is down to her last handful of flour and a tiny bit of oil. Then Elijah asks for a bit of bread. Elijah asks her: trust in God. The woman has a dilemma. Trust and hospitality win; the widow gives all she has to Elijah. And miraculously, she has a never-ending supply. That truly was a great act of faith in God's providence.

In the Gospel, we hear of a widow who put her last two coins, a small sum, into the Temple treasury. Jesus comments that, in contrast to those who gave from their surplus, she gave “all she had to live on.” A great act of faith in God's providence.

The author of Hebrews speaks about the superiority of Jesus’s sacrifice to the many sacrifices in the Temple. Jesus through his death and resurrection opens up to humankind eternal life.

I remembered a newspaper photographer sharing a scene after a devastating earthquake. A long line of people waited for food. Finally, only one banana was left. A girl divided it into three parts for three other children, and she licked the inside of that banana peel. “In that moment I swear I saw the face of God!” wrote the photographer.

Yes, the word of God challenges us to ask ourselves: do we reveal the face of God to one another? As missionary disciples of Jesus, we ought to show the face of God every day, especially living the beatitudes that Matthew sums up so splendidly in Chapter 5 of his Gospel. I would like to think Jesus would say this about us.

If you’re working to pay the bills but making time to be with your children, blessed are you. You may never own a big vacation home, but heaven will be yours.

If you happily give your time to serve, and befriend the unpopular, the lost, blessed are you. Count God among your friends.

If you are overwhelmed caring for an ill relative, blessed are you. One day your sorrow will be transformed into joy.

If you refuse to compromise your integrity and ethics, refuse to rationalize that “everyone does it,” blessed are you – you will triumph.

If you try to understand others and make things work for the good, if you listen and console, if you manage to heal wounds and build bridges; if you can see the good in everyone and seek the good for everyone: rejoice and be glad. Jesus says you are the blessed of God. In the end, heaven is yours.