In a realm where life basically terminates here, post-credits serve as a
way of continuing a story. For, if everything were to end with death, what
meaning does this life really have? Especially for those whose lives amount to
nothing. The losers or the ne’er-do-wells? There is silent killer which plagues
our youths and it is suicide, a symptom of our hopelessness. Hence, post-credits
serve as a vista or a window into a possible future. The readings today,
especially the first and the Gospel, offer that kind of an opening because they
contain within them the seed of continuity.
The beauty of the Maccabees is to be found in its scriptural support for
the Catholic teaching on purgatory as well as a proof that beyond this life
there is continuation. However, this extension is dependent on what happens in
this life. For this reason, those young men, urged on by their mother, dared to
lay down their lives in order to gain the reward of their faith. The
description of the reward is the matter of contention which we hear in the
Gospel. Sadly, there exists a divide between the Pharisees and the Sadducees when
it comes to the doctrine of the resurrection—one group believes in it and the
other does not. The opposing Sadducees set up an impossible scenario to counter
this belief. What happens if a woman predeceases all seven of her husbands and
finds herself in heaven? Would she be the wife of all seven brothers? The basic
assumption of this scheme is that the risen existence is no more than a
repetition or an extension of the life that she had before. In other words, this
type of resurrection represents “business as usual”. How boring can that be? It
means that if your life is boring, you can look forward to more boring. It is
certainly not the heaven we desire.
To understand the truth regarding the resurrection, we might want to
revisit the institution of marriage. Marriage serves two purposes—one to unite
a couple and the other to procreate—a word with a derogatory connotation of
breeding like rabbits. The point is, the institution of marriage fulfils the
need for perpetuation and therefore the preservation of the human race—we do want
to see ourselves living forever. Implicit in having children is to see us
living through them. Thus, in the absence of marriage’s goal of procreation, man
is doomed in his existence. Fortunately, in heaven, where life is eternal, the necessity
of prolongation or perpetuation does not arise. Hence, marriage is of no use in
heaven.
What Jesus did was to explode the concept of life beyond the temporal.
Perhaps His own experience is instructive for us. He appeared to them in a
locked room and yet He was bodily: “Touch me. You can see that ghosts
have no physicality”. In today’s Gospel, Jesus addressed God as the God
of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob showing us that He is the God of the living, demonstrating
that there is continuity though on a different plane of existence.
Today’s readings are almost like a post-credit in our liturgical movie.
As the Ordinary Time rolls to its end with the Solemnity of Christ the King,
the attention shifts to the last Four Things—namely, death, judgement, heaven
and hell. The Maccabees and the Gospel are foretaste of what is to come, that
life must and should continue into heaven.
This is basically the premise of must and should in the 2nd
Reading. St Paul does not talk about the risen life per se but instead, he shines
a spotlight on God’s faithfulness as the reason that we must and should hope.
Whatever the shape our lives may take, God’s fidelity is our assurance. He is
our hope of life after life.
What may be disturbing in the Maccabean youths is their courage seemed
to border on fanaticism. If their torture and execution were made into a movie,
the start of film will definitely trigger a warning, “You may find the
account of the killing of these youths disturbing”. What is the
difference between them and someone flying an aeroplane into a tower and shouting,
“God is great”?
An immense canyon if you like. The courage of these young men in walking
to their death is precisely that they witnessed to their faith, not by
destruction but by affirmation. They were not sceptical about life but rather,
they were prepared to give up their lives because of a greater value at stake,
that is, eternity. In running the race for eternity, they did not have to
destroy others but chose to sacrifice themselves.
In Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, we find the
themes of redemption and resurrection at play. Sydney Carlton, the alcoholic,
selfish and rather self-loathing lawyer is shown to be a true hero because he
ended up sacrificing himself for someone who looks like him, Charles Darnay. In
his parting speech, Carlton, the Christ-like figure, says, “It is a far, far better
thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go
to than I have ever known”. Martyrdom, by nature, is self-sacrificial. Dying for
one’s faith is not equivalent to killing for it. There is no scenario in which
killing others to prove one’s faith is acceptable. A martyr ennobles his life
by giving it up. He does not ennoble it by the barbarism of murdering others. Crashing
an aeroplane into a building and shouting “God is great” is not
courage but cowardice, not martyrdom but murder.
Christ and countless of martyrs after Him died with the praise of God on
their lips. “Viva Christo Rey” shouted Blessed Miguel Pro as he
was shot to death. “Long live Christ the King”. Also, in the
footsteps of their Master, they gave up their lives with forgiveness in their
hearts—"Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do”.
Martyrs, not murderers, remind us that we must continue to defend what is true
even though the cost is high and may result in the loss of our own lives. As someone
rightly said, “There must be good on earth for which one must be ready to
die for”. Today,
as we inch towards the closing of the Liturgical Year, we are invited to affirm
life as good. However, the challenge is our lack of imagination which may
account for our poor estimation of heaven. We cannot imagine beyond what we
have here. So, in affirming life as good, our test is how much we are prepared
to defend what we believe in, to the point of giving up even a good life
because we have before us, a better life which God has promised. We must never
lose sight of this truth because giving up something good only makes sense if
we are giving it up for something better.
