As we come to the last Masses before the end of the Church’s Liturgical year we will hear more - point blank - about the great necessities of life. And the greatest of these is where we are going to spend the life after this one!
There are certain conditions that have been set in place by God - who has a right to place them, and insist that they are met. The greatest condition is simply: LOVE. Did you love?
King Antiochus, in the first reading today, as the end of his life was drawing near looked at his life and saw plainly that though he had done some good things, that he also had done some really undesirable ones as well - especially in desecrating the temple of the Israelites, and ordering the inhabitants of Judah to be destroyed. He said: “I know that this is why these evils have overtaken me; and now I am dying, in bitter grief, in a foreign land.”
Perhaps, because he had made this kind of “confession,” he was granted mercy by God - and would one day be a recipient of the forgiveness wrought by the death of Jesus on the Cross.
In the gospel passage we have another story about what happens at death. Is there indeed any life after death at all? is the question posed by the Sadducees! Jesus assures them that there is life, there is resurrection to new life and that it is a different kind of life that earthly life. Earthly structures, earthly standards no longer apply. For God is very much the God of the living - he is God of all who have ever lived, and will continue to live with him after the resurrection at the Last Day!
Today we rejoice in the salvation which Jesus brought us - so that we can be counted among those who live forever in light, happiness and peace - in the Kingdom prepared for us from all eternity!
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