Beyond Expectations

 Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
~~2 Maccabees 7:1-2, 9-14~~Psalm 17~~2 Thessalonians 2:16-3:5~~Luke 20:27-38~~

 

The readings today invite us to consider our beliefs about resurrection.

The seven brothers were committed to their belief in life after death.
They refused to eat a yummy pork dinner even when faced with their own death.
We are ready to die rather than transgress the laws of our ancestors.

 Luke gives us the remarks from Jesus about how we should view life after death.
The husband had been wed to seven wives until each one died.
How will this be justified in death?
...those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age
and to the resurrection of the dead
neither marry nor are given in marriage.

We have a tendency to put everything in the context
 of what we have experienced here on earth.
By doing this we are limiting the reality of God.
We cannot begin to comprehend what God has in store
for those who make it to heaven.

It will be quite different from what we could imagine in our wildest dreams.
Could it really be possible that when we get to heaven
 our loved ones from here on earth will no longer be our main focus?

We want to believe that when we die we will be
 reunited with our loved ones who have gone before us.
We, the survivors, need this belief to help us cope
with the loss of someone we have greatly loved.
Believing we shall some day be reunited gives us comfort and hope.

Many even long to communicate with their loved ones who have died.
This desire to have some kind of communication with a deceased loved
 one may also be about our desire to gain knowledge of heaven.

 

 God has given us hints of what the after life is like,
but it usually does not match what we have envisioned.
I just keep reminding myself that whatever God has planned
for those who love him will be more magnificent than anything else.

 

 

 

 I would like to look at another section of the Maccabees reading...
...He put out his tongue at once when told to do so,
and bravely held out his hands, as he spoke these noble words:
"It was from Heaven that I received these;
for the sake of his laws I disdain them;
from him I hope to receive them again."

These words made me think of our receiving the Eucharist at Mass.
We come forward in faith to receive the Lord.
We present ourselves to the Lord in the same action.
We hold up our hands to receive.
His precious Body and Blood saturate our tongue.

 Truly this communion is from heaven.
It is our realization of the hope that we have in the love
and mercy of the Lord

Dying for believing is not something I dwell on very often.
When I receive Eucharist I believe it is a touch of heaven.
I also believe that words cannot
 adequately describe this communion with God.

 

 Blessings in believing that life after death will be so much more...