Tuesday is election day. How many are tired of mid-term politicking? Do you know how politicians “polled” their constituencies when our nation was new 200 years ago, no phones, no email, no web. Here’s how they did it. Politicians sent assistants to taverns, telling them: “go sip here” and “go sip there and listen to the conversations.” “Go sip” morphed into the word “gossip.” Today’s polls are like high- tech gossip.
Anyway, on Tuesday voters will decide who will control congress and some states. So don't forget to vote.
On Friday, November 11 we will honor our U.S. military veterans, over 18 million men and women. I invite our veterans to stand for our applause. Thank you for your service.
Today’s word of God situates us in the second century before Jesus. King Antiochus IV is a tyrant determined to replace Jewish practices with Greek practices. The result is open rebellion. 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, do we speak up for what’s right?
The Letter to the Christian community at Thessaloniki in Greece urges people to persevere in discipleship with Jesus. God will strengthen them, so they can focus on God and the things of God.
In the Gospel, Jesus and the Sadducees talk about mortality and immortality. The Sadducees didn’t believe in life after death. They argue their case with the absurd example of seven brothers -- there's that number seven again -- marrying the same sister-in-law and then each immediately dying. “Who’s her husband in the next life?” the Sadducees ask.
But Jesus turns the argument against them. He distinguishes between “this age” and “the next age.” What if God transforms us into a spiritualized body, raised to a new dimension? Even Moses alluded to life after death. Jesus leaves the Sadducees dumbfounded.
The topic of violent deaths – sadly, not a hypothetical in recent news -- segues into the mystery of suffering from a Christian perspective. Our faith proclaims that hidden in every Good Friday is the glory of Easter. We believe that God transformed the dead body-person of Jesus into a new awesome reality: passing through locked doors, walking to Emmaus, eating on the shore at Galilee and then “vanishing.”
The point is: the resurrection was real, even though the disciples couldn’t name the new mode of spiritual embodiment. And that new spiritualized body one day will be ours.
Meantime, we have our Good Fridays, when problems seem to overwhelm us. A job loss, severe illness, or a significant relationship unravelling. Our faith challenges us to remember that the narrative of Jesus did not end in the tragedy of the cross but in the triumph of the resurrection.
Still, we may wonder, where is God? This eternal question is highlighted in the book of Job, in the Confessions of Saint Augustine, in the literature of the novelist Dostoevsky, and in recent best sellers like Rabbi Kushner’s When Bad Things Happen to Good People.
As we reflect upon the human situation -- violence, denial of basic human rights in some countries, chaos in others -- we realize that our planet is wounded, and cries out for a transcendent healer.
Yes, at times, suffering does result from immoral behavior, from the misuse of freedom. Many tyrants have created untold sufferings. At other times, suffering results from uncontrolled natural disasters like fires, hurricanes, earthquakes, from an unfinished, incomplete universe.
But ultimately, suffering is a mystery. How respond to it?
First, we have to remember that God is always near. God seeks to bring us to the fullness of life. So, chisel in your consciousness the words of scripture, “Can a mother forget her child? And even if she does, I will never forget you.”
Second, avoid negative judgments about ourselves in bad times. To think I really deserve it is a form of self-hatred. God loves us unconditionally, forgives us, accepts us.
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. Our everyday inescapable aches and pains, borne with love, can be redemptive, can bring forth new depths of life in ourselves and in others. Why? Because Jesus brought forth a new and awesome life for us.
As we remember our deceased loved ones in November, we may ask, how do we come to terms with our own dying? Most of us do not long with St. Paul “to be free from this earthly life.” Many pass through Elizabeth Kubler Ross’s stages: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and ultimately acceptance.
Some counselors help people cope by encouraging them to begin drafting their last letter to loved ones. This may highlight the most important gifts we can leave: love, faith in God, hope in life eternal, compassion, forgiveness, gratitude. There’s a template on the Internet for a last letter.
In the Christian vision, we expect that the all-good Creator God who continually amazes us will surprise us in the moment of our dying. So, as we reflect on today’s readings, let us recall that hidden in the dying of Jesus was the glory of resurrection. And hidden within our own dying is the glory of eternal life: a beginning of a new awesome life.
In the meantime, try to do all the good you can, to all the people you can, in all the places you can, as long as ever you can. Amen.
