Readings:1Macc.6:1-13; Ps.9; Luke:20:27-40
Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Emenike Onyia.
WHY WE MUST BELIEVE IN THE RESURRECTION
Oftentimes when we talk about the teaching on resurrection, people always want to know what it is going to be like. We often get this teaching wrong because we are using our little knowledge of the things of this world
passing world to judge the heavenly things.
This is the disposition of the Sadducees in our Gospel passage today, since they do not believe in the resurrection, they decided to challenge Jesus concerning the notion of resurrection using the analogy of marital union in relation to the afterlife in order to discredit the teachings of Jesus.
As usual, Jesus goes on to explain how people will relate to each other in the afterlife. Those who are judged worthy of a place in the other world and the resurrection from the dead do not marry because they can no longer die, for they are the same as the angels, and being children of the resurrection they are sons of God. He then challenged the Sadducees’ unbelief about life after death.
He reminded them of the scene where the voice from the burning bush identifies itself to Moses. “I AM the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob” (Exodus 3:6). For He is the God of the living and not of the dead. After this reply of Jesus to both the Pharisees and the Sadducees, they no longer dared to ask him any questions.
Dear friends, we believe in the resurrection not so much because of Jesus’ arguments here, but because of his own resurrection of which he promised to share his life and joy with us forever. Jesus tells us that we are children of the resurrection and children of God who are neither married nor given in marriage in the heavenly kingdom.
Thus, it is natural for us to ask questions about the resurrection of life, but we should not expect to understand it fully while we are still alive. All that matters is our relationship with our God and neighbour for what we shall be after death is known by God alone.
This is what we see in the life of Cecilia, whose memorial we celebrate today, for she developed the love of God in her heart. Though she came from an extremely rich family and was given in marriage to a young man named Valerian. She wore sackcloth next to her skin, fasted, and invoked the saints, angels, and virgins, beseeching them to guard her virginity.
During her wedding ceremony, she was said to have sung in her heart to God, and before the consummation of her marriage, she told Valerian her husband that she had taken a vow of virginity and had an angel protecting her. Valerian asked to see the angel as proof, and Cecilia told him he would have eyes to see once he travelled to the third milestone on the Via Appia (Appian Way). There, he was baptised by Pope Urbanus. Following his baptism, Valerian returned to his wife and found an angel at her side. The angel then crowned Cecilia with a chaplet of roses and lilies.
Cecilia was later arrested and condemned to be suffocated in the baths. Later, an executioner was sent to cut off her head in the baths, who struck her three times but was unable to decapitate her, so he left her bleeding, and she lived for three days. Crowds came to her and collected her blood while she preached to them or prayed.
On the third day, she died and was buried by Pope Urban and his deacons. Today St. Cecilia is regarded as the patroness of music because she heard heavenly music in her heart when she was married and is represented in art with an organ or organ pipes in her hand.
LET US PRAY: Lord God, as we look forward to the resurrection of mankind. May we be inspired by the great example of our Lord Jesus and so obtain the joy of his resurrection. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. Have a fruitful weekend.
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