Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Dominica XXXII per Annum C

10 November 2019

 Ideas have consequences.  We see that in the Gospel exchange today between Jesus and the Sadducees.  The Sadducees were a distinct movement or party within Judaism.  They were a rather small but influential and elite group owing to their descent from a priestly line and thus, their influence in the Temple and the functions of worship.  They were also distinct in some of their beliefs.  For example, they had a much more restrictive approach to Scripture, accepting only the Books of Moses as authoritative (the Books of Moses being the Pentateuch, the first five books of our Bible).  They did not believe in the existence of angels.  And they rejected the notion of a resurrection.  So, it was not only their aristocratic lineage that set them apart, but also their thoughts, opinions, and beliefs.  Ideas have consequences.

 With this in mind let’s look at the two Gospel lessons (marriage and angels) and see just how different popular thought in society today is from the thought formed by divine teaching from Jesus.  I’ll start with angels.  It is a popular thought in society to claim that when a person dies he becomes an angel.  At the time of funerals, you see on cards and hear in poems direct claims that the deceased is now an angel watching over us or that Heaven has gained an angel.  Pinterest will literally explode with examples of this idea.  Now that idea may be based more on sentimentality, yet it has consequences.  Based on the revelation of Scripture and philosophical reasoning, angels are distinct beings that are purely spiritual.  As such it is not proper to their being to have a body.  That’s what it means to be an angel: an intelligent personal being that is purely spiritual and not bodily.  Quite a different level of being is the human being who properly exists as a unity of body and soul.  A human being has both a bodily element and a spiritual element.  As creatures of superior intelligence, and not being limited by a body, angels are, to use less technical terms, higher on the “food chain” than a human being, just as a human being is higher on the food chain than an animal, which is higher on the food chain than a plant.  So, what is the consequence of the popular idea that after death we become angels?  Now I hope no one brought any rotten produce from your backyard garden, but I have to break it to you that, first of all, such a notion is not true, is not consistent with the Scriptures, and therefore not a belief a Catholic should adopt.  Secondly, if after death we hold that a person can go up the food chain to become an angel, then we have to accept the possibility and logical consequence that we can also go down the food chain and become a dog, or worse a cat.  No one wants to accept going down the food chain and I don’t see popular poems around death and dying making any claims when a person dies that Heaven, or Hell for that matter, has gained a cat!  But wait!  Didn’t Jesus say that in the resurrection and in the age to come we will become angels?  Be careful.  He said those deemed worthy to attain to the age to come will be “like angels” and he says that not to indicate that a dead human being changes his rank of being and joins the choirs of angels.  Rather, he says they become like angels specifically in that they no longer die.  The dead person enters immortality, like the angels, but the dead person does so awaiting to be rejoined to his resurrected body.  It’s the way we properly exist as human beings.  In other words, a human being remains a human being and an angel remains an angel.

 Switching gears to the Gospel lesson on marriage, in society, popular thought and opinion (these days anyway) is that marriage is primarily, or even only, about the adults, that it is first and foremost about the fulfillment of the adult parties.  Therefore, whatever fulfills any two consenting adults is good and acceptable; and, is as good and acceptable as what fulfills any other two adults.  There are consequences of this thought.  So, we have slogans like “love is love.”  And we have bumper stickers of a blue square containing a yellow equal sign, and a red version of the same image.  This has consequences and it leads to a completely subjective understanding of marriage that results in marriage being whatever anyone wants to make of it.  And so, the consequence of popular thought leads to two men or two women simulating marriage and doing so nowadays with legal codification.  And it would be hopelessly naïve to think that this opinion about marriage won’t easily and quickly become no longer mostly about what two people want but will become any combination of numbers or genders or transgenders.  But what the Scriptures reveal, and therefore what a Catholic holds, about marriage is very different.  The Gospel selection today gives a small glimpse of this divine lesson.  Jesus responds to the situation presented by the Sadducees.  They present a silly hypothetical case of a woman married seven times in this world.  If you believe in a resurrection, well then, whose wife will she be when she returns to a bodily life in the new world to come?  Jesus responds that those who are deemed worthy to attain to the resurrection do not marry.  This is the case because in the resurrection he says specifically that “they can no longer die.”  So, what is the consequence of that thought?  What do we learn from it?  If in the resurrection people do not marry because they cannot die that means that a primary reason for marriage in this age is precisely for procreation, the continuation of life, since we can and do die in this world.  Society’s opinion leads to the rejection of children as a primary purpose and blessing in marriage by the promotion of contraception.  And society’s opinion rejects the exclusive nature and value of the complementarity of the two sexes whose unity in marriage models the unity of God Himself whose image in creation is shown in making us both male and female.  Based on the Natural Law, based on Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition, the Catholic holds that openness to life and the unity of the spouses are the primary purposes of marriage.  Furthermore, we hold that it is precisely these fundamental purposes that are for the good of the spouses and which lead to their fulfillment and flourishing.

 Ideas have consequences.  We need to be careful about what we permit to influence our thoughts and opinions because that translates into our beliefs and our actions.  I fear that it is fashionable, especially these days and in the arena of the faith, to want quick and easy answers and to not treat seriously that Scripture and Tradition are our guides and that they need to be carefully studied.  If we are people of faith who know Jesus to be God and master of our life, then popular opinion in society needs much greater scrutiny so that we make sure we are not led astray.  For the consequence of being led astray would mean not only the possibility of being wrong but could also mean we are not worthy to attain to heavenly resurrection.

 The Maccabean brothers in the first reading give us a powerful example of just how important it is to be aware of which ideas we permit to form and influence us.  These seven brothers, together with their valiant mother, are examples of fidelity in the face of the popular and secular thinking of their time.  When societal pressure and the secular force of the king demanded they violate God’s law they refused and died for that faith.  Their witness remains for us today.  For as much as we value the present life, and we should, we can’t compromise the offer of the life to come.  If we permit ourselves to be formed by the uncritical adoption of popular societal opinion how will we ever hope, to be like the Maccabees, to provide an example of fidelity in our time?  Ideas have consequences.  We come from God and we are made for Him and we are called to return to Him.  In the meantime, we have the duty to stand as witnesses to divine truth so that others reject falsehood and share our hope for a heavenly resurrection.  As we prayed in the Collect of this Holy Mass: “Almighty God, …keep from us all adversity, so that… we may pursue in freedom of heart the things that are yours.”