A God that does not take, but gives life

Listening to the Spirit

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth.

O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His consolations, Through Christ Our Lord,

Amen.

Listening to the Word

Luke 20:27-40

There came to him some Sad′ducees, those who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take the wife and raise up children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first took a wife, and died without children; and the second and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. Afterward the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife.”

And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are accounted worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die any more, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living; for all live to him.” And some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well.” For they no longer dared to ask him any question.

Reflection

In this Gospel, Jesus is put to trial by the Sadducees, a group of Levites descendants of the first high priest of the Temple of Jerusalem, who were considering themselves to be the guardians of the orthodoxy of the scriptures, and did not believe in the resurrection. Patiently, Jesus takes advantage of this encounter for showing them how the Scriptures demonstrate exactly the contrary: there is resurrection after death. (cf. Lk. 20:37-38)

But this Gospel can bring us also to another reflection. The example of the widow taken by seven husbands, hoping to get descendance, depicts also our fear of losing life. That woman was taken by seven man to get a child describes the search for life and eternity (according to the law of levirate, the widow should be taken by the brother of the deceased for rising descendance and so bring on the name of her husband). This example symbolizes our desperate need to feel alive which we nurture by possessing things and dominating people. We need to possess, to accumulate, to buy, to control, just because we are afraid of becoming nobody, disappearing, being forgotten, fading away. And we end up to be dominated by this greed, which unavoidably brings us to disappointment and death.

The logic of the gospel is completely different. God is a God who does not take life but gives it. He is God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, because he desires to belong to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, and offers His life to hem. He is not afraid of laying down His life so that others can live (cf. Mt 16:25).

This gospel calls us to believe in the infinite love of God for us. We are not alone, we are not orphans, and we do not need to save our lives (physical or psychological) by possessing so many things and dominating people. Our life is just eternal as the love of God for us. So, we can live with no worries: even death will not be able to destroy the bond of love with our Father.

Those who are afraid of dying strive to possess for surviving, whilst those who believe that they will live forever are able to give and to become people for others, just as God is for others. “He is God not of the dead, but of the living” (cf. Lk. 20:38). The vows of chastity and poverty in consecrated life are rooted in this belief.