This world is so darn hard sometimes. Too often for many people. We’re navigating our way through it the best we know how, the way we were taught. And really, it’s only through the reliance on others, the relationships we have with other people – our families, good friends, our spouses, our fellow parishioners – that will get us through it. It’s kind of just figuring it out as we go, whatever our lot in life, and we’re simply trying to keep our head above water. And the thing is, God is behind it all, touching us and guiding us through other people. We’ve just got to see it.
Christ knows how tough life is. He lived it. He died because of it. And He puts people in our midst that can help us through anything. And it’s no more apparent than in our spouses. It’s no more apparent than in our children. The good friends we have. I don’t know how many times I’ve needed to hear something, and my wife or my son or even a good friend says exactly what I need to hear, or raises the perfect question without even really knowing what they’re doing. And I know I’ve helped in that regard too.
We need others to help us through this world. And it’s never been more apparent than this day and age. We see it all around us. When I look at the readings today, I see completely different settings, plots, and circumstances – but the end is the same. Rising from the dead. Eternal life in Heaven.
The first reading today speaks of unimaginable pain and torture of seven sons and their mother, martyred for their faith in God and His Law. In the Gospel, the Sadducees question Jesus about the after-life. They don’t believe in the resurrection, and so they paint a picture regarding a woman who could not conceive and seven brothers died trying to uphold the Law and take care of her, providing for her and trying to carry on the family name. The woman eventually died also. The Sadducees are trying to trap Jesus, and discredit Him, prove Him wrong.
How do these readings tie together? How do they relate to the world today?
In both these stories, there is immense pain and tragedy. Seven sons are tortured and killed for their faith. A mother watches in horror, finally succumbing to the same fate.
Then there are the seven brothers. One after another, each attempts to uphold the Law, and care for the woman after their brother dies. The anguish and pain she must have felt not being able to conceive, and then having each one pass away.
And then the question of the after-life. Does it exist? The seven sons hope in the resurrection, with one saying before he dies – “It is my choice to die at the hands of men with the hope God gives of being raised up by him; but for you, there will be no resurrection to life.”
The Sadducees don’t believe in all that. The don’t believe in eternal life, and if it does exist, they don’t understand how a woman and the seven men she was legally married to can live in peace and harmony. They ask, “who would she be married to in Heaven?”
But these aren’t a couple Bible stories from a day long gone, thousands of years ago. They are stories of today. All of us at some point have to endure pain and tragedy in our lives. All of us, at some point, have to ask ourselves, “Do I believe in Heaven? Do I believe that I will have eternal life with God?”
Do we truly have that faith, to the point where we would be able to endure imminent pain and suffering for eternal life? We ask ourselves, If I die at this moment, do I believe that I would go to Heaven? Is my soul ready?
What about with those close to us? We look at the relationships we have here on earth – our spouses, family members, and our friends. When we lose someone close to us, do we have the hope and faith that we can continue on, that there is a reason for this, that one day, we will see God and be with Him, and understand that heartache and why things had to happen the way they did?
Do we have the faith to rely on God – and others – to help us through?
These things happen every day, close to home and far abroad. No explanation. No apparent reason. The world seems to be in so much disarray.
And if you sit in your house, and watch the news all the time, and see all the carnage on TV from around the world, and listen to all the hateful things that are being said and carried out – it impacts your soul. You become hardened and you start to lose faith – faith in humanity, and most importantly, faith in God. You start the feel the end is near, and who knows – it may be. But you start to lose hope.
Nope, at these times, you’ve got to get out and be with people. Get out into the world and experience each other, looking for the joy and hope. Observe families enjoying time with each other in a public park. Watch the joy of kids playing an unorganized soccer game, or basketball game. Get involved with a men’s or women’s group. Sponsor an engaged couple. Attend a wedding.
Spend time with friends. Coach a team. Mentor someone. Ask for help.
Waste time with your family – unplugged.
There is hope. There is joy to be found. We’ve got to be there for each other, helping each other out. Look for God in others we encounter, and let God use you as His instrument. Want to be a better person. Desire to be a better Catholic, and look for ways you can make the world better, and help make the lives of others better. Be hopeful. And pray for each other. This is how Paul ties it together today in his letter to the Thessalonians – he simply encourages us to pray for one another.
I firmly believe this is how we attain eternal life in Heaven – by helping others get there, and seeking God’s grace through others and the Sacraments He offers us. That’ll get us to Heaven.
What’s it like when we get there? The one thing I believe, the one thing I have hope in is that it is beyond all human understanding and imagination. How can our earthly relationships really even compare to what we will experience there? I think the love and joy we experience in this world – those relationships – will be expanded and transformed into a love and joy we cannot even comprehend. So I’m not going to try. I’m not going to try and figure it out.
This is the lense I look through when I view the world today. I know there are problems and there is evil. Bad things happen. But I have hope in something better. Because whenever bad things happen – no matter how big nor how small – people are there for each other, and that’s what matters. That’s what we have to do – be there for each other and help each other along.
I have the hope that we can do this. And I hope I have the faith it takes to get myself and help get those around me, those I have any type of influence on to Heaven, to the place where death and evil are no more, and where we no longer have to seek His Grace, but are engulfed in it and living fully in His midst.
I pray you all have this hope too.
God bless.
2 MC 7:1-2, 9-14; PS 17; 2 THES 2:16-3:5; LK 20:27-38
