32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time

Once television producers develop something popular, they tend to exploit it repeatedly. Years ago, the popularity of a sitcom like Cheers led to other popular shows like Friends and Seinfeld. Currently, shows like The Voice, Dancing with the Stars, and America’s Got Talent, all featuring amateur talent, seem very popular. 

A while ago, makeover shows were the rage. These shows restyled everything from the curb appeal of a house to old battered cars. Some of the most popular- like What Not to Wear and Extreme Weight Loss- restyled a person’s appearance. One series called itself Radical Makeovers. The show’s producers weren’t satisfied with changing a person’s hairstyle and wardrobe. The participants in this show resorted to plastic surgery, medical procedures, and even psychological therapy to become radically different people.

Resurrection is all about becoming a radically different person in what Paul calls a glorified body. That was the point of Jesus’ discussion with the Sadducees we heard in today’s Gospel. Luke wrote:

"Some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, came forward."

The Sadducees were a powerful religious group in Jesus’ day and dominated Palestine’s political and spiritual life. They were priests in the Temple and made up most of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling body. The Sadducees only accepted the teachings of the Pentateuch- the first five books of the Bible- as sacred scripture. Since that part of the Scriptures does not mention an afterlife, angels, or spirits, they refused to believe in them. 

In today’s Gospel, they present Jesus with an absurd scenario. First, by quoting Moses, they remind Jesus that they only accept the teachings of the Pentateuch. They say to our Lord:

“Teacher, Moses wrote for us,

If someone’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no child,

His brother must take the wife

and raise up descendants for his brother."

This practice might sound creepy today, but in Jesus' time, it protected widows from losing financial support and allowed for a male line of descendants to continue. Since it might also entail bigamy, it wasn’t followed strictly in Jesus’ day. 

After establishing the religious foundation for their beliefs, the Sadducees propose the ridiculous situation of the seven brothers. 

"Now there were seven brothers; the first married a woman but died childless. 

Then the second and the third married her, and likewise, all seven died childless. 

Finally, the woman also died. 

Now at the resurrection, whose wife will that woman be? 

For all seven had been married to her.” 

The Sadducees use the example of the seven brothers and the widow to discredit the idea of resurrection. The Sadducees try to portray resurrection life as just the continuation of life on earth. Jesus tells them that their understanding of the resurrection is seriously wrong. Jesus tells them that their knowledge of resurrection life needs a radical makeover.

Jesus tells the Sadducees that we can’t apply the same standards of life on earth to life in heaven. Resurrection life is not living in the same manner as on earth. Resurrection life is based on our covenant with God. Unlike our human relationships that come and go, live, die, and are broken by death, our covenant relationship with God is for all eternity.

Jesus preached that Resurrection life is based on our unbreakable bond with God. Jesus reminds the Sadducees of God’s revelation to Moses concerning God’s relationship with Abraham and the other Patriarchs. Luke wrote:

"That the dead will rise even Moses made known in the passage about the bush, 

when he called out 

'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.'” 

Jesus uses an example from the Pentateuch to show the Sadducees the unbroken relationship God pledged to have with these Patriarchs and all their descendants. Jesus reminds the Sadducees that God promised to always be faithful to the covenant and of God’s love for them throughout time. To sustain that covenant relationship, those with whom God shares the covenant must live on even after physical death. Those with a relationship with God must experience a radical makeover to live on after death with God forever.

Each of us experienced a radical makeover through our baptism. We have died and been raised to new life in Christ by it. We underwent an extreme makeover at our baptism that established an unbreakable covenant with God. That relationship is everlasting life. Sin and indifference on our part can strain and stretch our relationship with God, but cannot kill it. God will not allow its destruction. A generous God always allows us to reclaim our covenant relationship.

Our radical makeover into a child of God has its responsibilities. We must live life so that we recognize we are living the resurrection here and now. Resurrection life means we live focused on God. As the angels and heavenly hosts live centered on God in heaven, God must be the center of our lives. Living centered on God means we give God the thanks, praise, and worship God deserves because of His goodness to us. Being centered on God calls us not to let anything interfere with our relationship with God. Our family, our job, our hobbies, we can’t let any of these cause us to be distracted from being faithful to our relationship with God.

Living resurrection life means that we apply heavenly standards to our lives here on earth. It means we struggle to be people of peace, forgiveness, and justice. We live as people who don’t always demand what we feel is rightfully ours but who desire to live in harmony with each other. Living resurrection lives means we bear our hurts with patience and try to heal the sorrows of others. Being people who live resurrection lives calls us to seek justice for those who are being abused by the powerful.

By living resurrection lives, we must take the actions necessary to recognize our role in cooperating with God’s cosmic plan for salvation. We are here to shape this world in the image of God’s plan for salvation. Resurrection life means cooperating with God so we can become the person God created each of us to be. 

God promises a second radical makeover if we live as resurrection people in this life. It is the opportunity to live with him forever in heaven in resurrected bodies transformed with God’s love. God offers us a new and everlasting life. Jesus promises us a life where we can finally live to our full potential and find our true identity.

Resurrection life is being rehearsed right now in this Eucharist we are celebrating. This Eucharist gives us a glimpse of heaven. God gives us a little taste of everlasting life as we come together today. God helps us glimpse heaven as we gather as brothers and sisters in Christ around this altar. God gives us a peek at resurrection life as we hear God’s word in the scripture. 

Jesus promised all who ate His flesh and drank His blood would have everlasting life. As we come forward to receive the Eucharist today, rejoice in the gift of Christ’s Real Presence. Jesus Christ becomes present to us to help us be receptive to God’s call for a radical makeover for each of us. May we be worthy to receive the Lord’s Real Presence and allow it to accomplish a radical makeover in our lives.