Sunday Gospel Comment
Alberic Jacovone OSB
YEAR C THIRTY-SECOND SUNDAY OF THE YEAR - 7.11.04 2 Macc 7,1-2.9-14; 2 Thess 2,16-3,5; Lk 20,27-38 What’s it like in Heaven? Jesus’
scenario in Jerusalem.
Luke’s Gospel presents Jerusalem as the place where Jesus meets his destiny in
full frontal rejection. At this point we readers are invited to see how
“God’s Visitation” is sadly rejected by Old Israel & a New Israel
(=Christianity) is about to emerge under Jesus’ Messiahship.
As Jesus enters Jerusalem, acclaimed with the Hosannas of his disciples,
he goes straight to the Temple & ‘cleanses it’: he expels all money
changers & charges them to turn God’s House of Prayer into a den of
robbers. This daring act brings on Jesus the anger of the Temple Authorities
& all opponents who one after one, confront & discredit him, in order to
get rid of him. By now, there is no turning point for Jesus: He weeps over the
Holy City - foretells that not a stone upon a stone will be left of God’s
Temple - invites his disciples (us readers included!), to read the signs of the
times & move into the New World Order. By now also, all opponents join
forces, consider Jesus a political liability, reject his message & want him
killed. All along Luke presents Jesus as a man of destiny: always in charge -
warning & challenging through coded, parabolic language or straight
exposure. In the parable of the vineyard, the tenants kill God’s Beloved Son,
& sadly, Jesus’ accusers will commit the same crime. Yes God will destroy
those tenants & give the vineyard to others. But he exposes the hypocrisy of
the Pharisees, who try to trap him on questions of taxes to Roman Empire, by
ruling: give to Caesar what is Caesar’s & to God... He is God’s Messiah
& Saviour. What
it’s like in Heaven? Of
all opponents however, the Sadducees are Jesus’ most powerful enemies. Luke
mentions them here for the first and only time. The name ‘Sadducee’ (in
Hebrew “Tz’dukim”, plural of “Tza-dok”)
goes back to Zadok, one of King David’s chief priests. They were prominent
among the Priesthood in Jerusalem: were richer, more skeptical, more worldly and
more willing to cooperate with the Roman Conquerors. They presided over the
sacrifices in the Temple, so that its destruction in 70 AD destroyed their
viability. They were powerful politicians, under the High Priest (in Hebrew
‘Cohen Hagadol’), using their position to influence and appease the invading
Roman Army & negotiate a measure of Jewish rule, religious life &
identity. As shrewd politicians they had no sympathy for religious preachers,
fanatics, freedom fighters & enthusiasts of the Torah, who romanticized
revolution, murder & death as a
way of marching into martyrdom, glory and resurrection. In today’s Gospel,
they try to expose the absurdity of the resurrection from the complication it
would produce, when a man took as wife his brother’s widow, to provide heirs
for his brother (Levirite Marriage: Deut. 25,5). Jesus in reply denies the
parallel: Heaven has nothing to do with marriage. God is not God of the dead but
of the living. Those who are worthy of the resurrection are like angels & as
such never die & never marry. To us Christians, New People of God, Jesus is
everything: Son of God - Saviour - Risen Lord - giver of eternal life. Questions for us: what
do we say heaven is? The Green Catechism taught us that ‘we are created to
know, love & serve God in this life & to enjoy Him in Heaven’, but
what do we say about Heaven? Is it simply exemption from all evil(negative),
enjoyment of all good(positive)? Do details like ‘God’s blessings, sheer
happiness, light of glory, beatific vision, sharing God’s life, eternal honour
& peace, communion of Saints... fire our imagination? Let’s long to get
there by a life of virtues, prayer, sacraments & good deeds to ‘little
ones’. ______________________________________ |
