Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Much can distract us from the main point tying today’s readings together. The gruesome torture and killing of seven brothers and their mother might lead us down the path of talking about religious persecution, or martyrdom, or upholding the laws of faith at all cost. The puzzle posed by the Sadducee in the Gospel might inspire homilists to tackle issues of marriage and remarriage or venture into trying to explain the afterlife.
Each of these ideas and concepts is important to discuss. But Christian liturgy invites us to see what is revealed about Christ when we contemplate all these readings together through the action of the Eucharist. Through this lens we glimpse a truth about the Resurrection: It is complete and total intimate relationship with Christ and with one another—even with those who would persecute, entrap, debate, or kill us.
Through the 'lens' of the Eucharist, we glimpse a truth about the Resurrection: It is complete and total intimate relationship with Christ and with one another—even with those who would persecute, entrap, debate, or kill us. Click To TweetPope Francis described it this way: “We do not love concepts or ideas…We love people…Commitment, true commitment, is born of the love of men and women, of children and the elderly, of peoples and communities…of names and faces which fill our hearts” (July 9, 2015, address).
God is not a God of abstract ideas or theories but of relationship. All we do in our living and our dying for this faith must be grounded in love for one another through Christ. Anything else is a distraction.
This post was first published in “GIA Quarterly: A Liturgical Music Journal.”
Image credit: Aaron Burden, Unsplash, CC0.
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