GOD IS THE GOD OF THE LIVING

XXXII SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME: LK 20:27-38; 2 Mac 7:1-2,9-14

The seven martyrs, their mother and Eleazar

The traditionalist Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection

During Jesus' time, the resurrection of the dead was already a commonly accepted belief among the Jews. In spite of that, the Sadducees, a group composed mainly of priestly families, who were traditionalists in questions of faith, refused to believe in the resurrection. Guiding themselves only by the Torah, that is the written Law as it can be read in the first five books of the Bible, they saw the faith in the resurrection as something new and alien to the truths revealed by God.

The long process of revelation

The Sadducees did not realize that God's revelation was a long process through which God guided his people towards the truth. Coming to Jesus, the Sadducees tried to laugh at him and fill him with scorn by showing how laughable the belief in the resurrection was. Jesus told them, straight to their faces: "you are wrong" (Mk 12:24), because in the resurrection, we will be children of God, equal to angels, and our bodies will acquired a completely new dimension, since God's life and God's glory will be manifest in them.

God is the living God

Little by little, the people of Israel discovered this truth, which Jesus expressed very clearly: God is the God of the living; and he is our God. In the journey of faith, the people of Israel were influenced by others, specially the Persians who believed in the resurrection and who had liberated them from the Babylonians, allowed them to go back to their homeland and gave them freedom to follow their customs and practice their religion. But more important than the Persian influence was the guidance of the Holy Spirit, who led them to a deeper understanding of Yahweh. With the Exodus, the people of Israel recognised Yahweh as Liberator and Lord. Through the prophets, they came to realize that, being the Liberator, he wants to set us free even from the power of death. Yahweh, being the living God, is the God of the living.

In 2 Maccabees 7:9, the faith in the resurrection appears clearly. One of the seven brothers told the king: 

"you dismiss us from this present life, 

but the King of the universe will raise us up 

to an everlasting renewal of life, 

because we have died for his laws”.

The example of the seven brothers

The books of the Maccabees present the revolt against the oppressive laws of the Seleucid king Antiochus IV,  giving witness to many Jews who chose to remain faithful to God and defiant to the king, in spite of the persecution inflicted upon them. The story of the seven brothers represents the attitude of many others, who did not care about what was considered politically correct, aware that the politically correct many times is not correct at all. They believed in the resurrection, and in that belief they found the courage to die for their faith.