As we come towards the end of the Church's year, and approach the liturgical season of Advent, it might seem unusual to reflect on resurrection? Or is it? All seasons of the year point to the new life of resurrection—it is the central paradigm of our faith. For the Christian, everything must be viewed through the lens of resurrection—for the Christian, everything can only make sense through resurrection. More than ever, in these past couple of years, we have learnt that we need to stay with the problems that hit our communities—to be there in the good and the bad; to be there on Good Friday and Easter Day. The point is not to flee the danger but to find our place where we serve and make the conscious decision to stay.

In the gospel accounts of resurrection, we see the women rushing to the safety of the Upper Room Lockdown when they discover an empty tomb. It is in that very emptiness that the disciples discover meaning and life. It is in that empty grave, with the funeral cloths tossed to one side, that Peter fully realised what 'rising from the dead' actually meant. Thomas Merton helps us to appreciate the power of this day and to see glory even in the middle of so much pain. As Christians, we are invited to live life to the full—we need a strong dose of reality:

True encounter with Christ liberates something in us, a power we did not know we had, a hope, a capacity for life, a resilience, an ability to bounce back when we thought we were completely defeated, a capacity to grow and change, a power of creative transformation.

In today's gospel, Jesus meets with a theological group called the 'Sadducees'. They do not believe in the concept of 'heaven' and an 'afterlife'. For them, death is the end: trying to be clever, they try to entrap Jesus with the sad tale of a poor widow who loses her husband. One by one, all six of her original husband's brothers die—it is beginning to sound like a crazy edition of the 'Miss Marple' detective series.

As always, Jesus is able to turn their silly and deliberately argumentative views on their head. For Him, resurrection is about the fullness of divine life that we are invited to share. It is not about whose partner you will be in the afterlife. When we are young, life is carefree and wonderful. However, as we get older, we realise just how fragile life actually is. These past few years of a global pandemic and a threat of a global war have made us all that bit more aware of what happens after death. In a sense the Sadducees have it easy: death is the end! However, Resurrection and new life lies at the heart of our faith. Belief in an afterlife is proclaimed weekly in our profession of faith in the Creed. Unlike the Sadducees we are not on a journey to nowhere—our hearts are restless until they rest fully with God. We are not created for death, rather for life:

God so loved the world that he gave his only son, so that anyone who believes in him will not perish but may have eternal life.

Author: Fr Gerry O'Shaughnessy SDB

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash