Saturday of the 33rd Week of Ordinary Time – November 19th, 2022 – Lk 20:27-40
Today’s Gospel should probably sound familiar, because we just heard it as the Sunday Gospel for the 32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, so not even two weeks ago. Then, we talked about the resurrection of the body, and how it is right that our bodies should come to share in the sufferings or the glory of our souls, since on earth they served us as an instrument that we made use of, either to sin or to do good things.
However, today we can consider another part of the Gospel, namely, how our God is a God of “the living.” The point that Jesus makes might be difficult to get depending on the translation: the typical one that we use for Mass reads “That the dead will rise even Moses made known in the passage about the bush, when he called ‘Lord’ the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.” The reference is to Exodus 3:6, where from the burning bush God tells Moses: “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” God repeats the phrase in verses 15 and 16. The Fathers of the Church have pointed out that, as Jesus notes, God has said “I am the God . . .” not, “I was the God . . .”. In other words, He is still the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because they are still around; they haven’t disappeared into the void or vanished. They might be dead physically, but they still “live with God in the hope of the resurrection,” as one father puts it.[1]
It is important to remember that our God is a God of life: He gives us life, and wants us to live with Him forever in heaven. Indeed, it’s only a life with God, a life in grace, that we can really call a life in the truest sense of the word. A person who lives in sin, who lives far away from God, isn’t really alive, no matter how much they might insist that they are “living the good life,” or “enjoying life to the full.” Rather, they’re just surviving, trying to fill the emptiness of their souls with a thousand and one things that will never satisfy for very long. Our God is a God of the living: He wants to give us life, but the choice to receive that life is ours. He won’t force us to accept it, but we won’t find our happiness anywhere else.
Today, we can ask ourselves if we are really living life to the full, meaning, living in the glory of God’s grace. Let us pray, through the intercession of Mary, Mother of God for the grace to grow in that life, and for the conversion of sinners, so that they might come to know and believe in the love that God has for them, and the greatness and goodness of the life that He offers.
[1] Theophylactus, as cited by Aquinas in the Catena Aurea.
