32nd Sunday - Fr. Leo
The number Seven is mentioned in both our first reading from 2 Maccabees and in the passage from Luke’s gospel that we just heard. The number seven represents fullness and perfection. The perfection in the first reading is the faithful death of the seven brothers who die for their faith. Each is encouraged by their faithful mother to embrace death as she witnesses their torturous demise before her own. A horrible story, the point is perfect faith, and the fullness of faith, may require the giving of our lives. It may seem silly to die because you won’t eat pork, but it’s the tyranny of the king who claims power over God that is being challenged. The seven brothers are humble before God and serve God, the king serves himself and takes the lives God has given people.
Anytime you have a hierarchy, you risk this kind of abuse. People in power become served at the expense of the rest. This is why Jesus stated that he “come to serve and not to be served.” True authority enables the gifts and talents of others. It doesn’t repress them or control them for its own glory. There may be helpful guidance given by authority, but the community over time will discern its truth. So there may be moments of tension, but it leads to true peace.
In the Gospel there are seven brothers who all end up marrying the same woman and not producing any heirs. The Pharisees are trying to frame their question as the perfect question to trip Jesus up. They are trying to use the “law” to condemn the Son of God. They display the same attitude as the king in 2 Maccabees. Jesus’ response is based on the reality of the resurrection. In the next life there is no marriage, for all will be like angels living as one in the “God of the living.” The life and spirit of God are above our cultural definitions. Thus Jesus puts “religion” in the context of genuine spirituality. The seven brothers in 2 Maccabees have a living faith that guides their humbleness before God. The Pharisees on the other hand, are trying to manipulate the laws of religion to serve their own needs, and not the will of God. Perfection comes from discerning and living in the Spirit of the law, not as a way of weakening it, but as a continual growing in the life of the Holy Trinity.
When the resurrection is denied with the possibility of a life far more perfect to come, the blindness of the moment that “professes” to see, brings legalism and death. The Pharisees seek to judge, Jesus seeks to make genuine love and the fullness of life in God our purpose for being. Let us choose to believe in the fullness of life now and in the life to come. Let us not become kings and Pharisees who want to serve themselves with earthly power. Let us choose to be God’s people who serve God and live in the perfect fullness of his being. May we live in God as he lives in us. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.