IF YOU WANT TO GO TO HEAVEN … BE A BOY SCOUT (GIRL GUIDE)

How right was Lord Baden-Powell when he chose the ‘motto’ for his movement, better known, world-wide as ‘The Boy Scouts Movement’. As we recall, his motto was, and still is, “BE PREPARED”. Maybe, Baden-Powell, might have borrowed that motto from the Scriptures, because that was the most common advice given by Jesus to the Jews and to us all, ‘to be vigilant’. And what better way could there be to celebrate Advent with the Church. As we all know ‘Advent’ means’ to stay in preparedness, in waiting. Waiting NOT to say ‘Happy Holidays’ but to celebrate the Birth of God-man, Jesus Christ, with great joy, and therefore, “HAPPY CHRISTMAS”.

THAT, is ‘great news’! For that reason we find it written in the Gospel, because the Gospel is the Book that spreads the Good News. His Coming, the Coming of God, is the key to the History of the Old Testament, and the basic theme of its people. But this is only a ‘prelude’ to that Coming of God in which the Word was made Flesh. Each individual Christian, personally, and the Church of Christ, as a community, is a sign of the fact that God has come and is with us … tlll the end of time.

But the language used in next Sunday’s Gospel, seems to cast a dark shadow on the ‘joy’ and the ‘great news’. The reason is the lack of knowledge of such apocalyptic language used in the days of Christ and so strange to our culture and literary genre. If anyone interprets this Gospel by casting fear, anxiety and swallowing of barbiturates, will be rendering a huge disservice to Christ and His Word. What Jesus had in mind was to warn against the grave danger of losing the opportunity of salvation that the Lord offers.

There is no reason to lose our head. Yet many are those who are losing their head because they are abnormally absorbed in business, live in slumber, being blunted, in the pursuit of pleasure. One day, these will undergo a rude, dramatic awakening. These are those who lost their lives in the days of Noah. BUT, if you follow Christ’s warning … and the Boys’ Scouts motto, things will be different.
Mind you, Christ is not threatening us, He is not going to take us unawares. He does not act like a thief, and seems to want to seize the moment in which a person is unprepared. Christ is not threatening us with salvation, but it is a ‘wake-up’ call, it draws attention on the impending danger of not noticing the favorable moment of the day in which the Lord comes to involve us in his peace. We know what it means to miss favorable opportunities, even in the every-day life, or in business. So many times we have had the experience. The more surprising and unexpected they are, the more they come out of our criteria of judgment, then the easier we let them pass by.

The comings of God in our lives are always difficult to grasp because they do not conform to human wisdom; they are incompatible. They are in contrast with the current mentality. And only the one who is vigilant knows how to recognize them and is saved here and now.

A SCRIPTURAL COCKTAIL

... should I call it a mix up, sun and rain at the same time, a bitter-sweet drink? Call it what you will. But when reading next Sunday’s Liturgy Text, we have to think and read with an open mind, and most important, please DO NOTE Christ’s words and promises.

We start reading, or listening to the reading by the Prophet Malachi, and it’s ‘hell, fire and brimstone’ as the phrase goes.

But let’s not join the gang of ‘fundamentalists’ and say, ‘Here we are, it’s the end of the world.’ This is the conclusion when we see wars everywhere, hatred, wrong-doings, insensible political decisions, famine, pestilence and misery all around us. And to strenghten their argument and prove themselves right, they will substantiate their argument by quoting some verses from the Scripture.

But do stop and think. Do you know of any age, epoch, era, when these or similar disasters did not exist or happen? Look up a History book, or the Holy Scripture, and you will realise that these happenings were, or rather are, the run of the day. In fact they are happening even now, in our day and age.

Then comes the Gospel reading with apocalyptic language and images which makes you tremble all through. But have a, look at the Psalm of the day, no. 98, and you will rightly say, ‘But what on earth is happening, why should I sing and play on the harp? What is there to be happy about?’ And that is just what we should note in next Sunday’s Reading.

We cannot understand or gauge what lies ahead of us, because we cannot see with God’s eyes. Besides Christ specifically tells us: “But not a single hair of your head will be lost. By standing firm you will win true life for yourselves.”

You see, we have a veil in front of our eyes which hinders us to see correctly and clearly. And Christ is removing that veil, He is ‘revealing’ what is now hidden from our sight. That is the meaning of ‘Revelation’ or ‘Apocalypse’. But we have to trust the Lord, otherwise we shall remain blind.

We have every cause to sing and play on the lyre, because we do have a mighty, trustful captain, in Jesus Christ. The sun of justice is Jesus. The day burning like an oven is that of His Death and Resurrection. The fire that will destroy “all evil” is the Spirit that He sent us, and His Word, His Gospel that has already started to renew the face of the earth.

So keep on spreading His Word, as you are duty-bound, especially if you have received the Sacrament of Baptism.

TOMORROW NEVER COMES

So run the lyrics of a song: “I gonna live like tomorrow never comes, there’s no end in sight … and live like tomorrow never comes …” Though this song came out in 2013, yet curiously enough, this was the philosophy, the way of life lived and enjoyed by the Sadducees in the days of Christ. We can conclude that the world has not changed … and I wonder if it ever does.

We have to bear in mind that the Sadducees were wealthy and powerful. They lived in luxury in the northern part of Jerusalem. They only believed in the Torah, the Pentateuch or the first five Books of the Scriptures, and as life after death was not mentioned in these Books, they never believed in after-life. But there is another point worth mentioning; they were against the idea of a promised Messiah. The arrival of the Messiah meant a change of life, on outlook in general, of personal sacrifices. SO … they were better off without the Messiah.

The question they put to Jesus was not genuine, it was too far-fetched. It did exist, it was known as the Law of the Levirat. Levirate marriage is a type of marriage in which the brother of a deceased man is obliged to marry his brother's widow, and the widow is obliged to marry her deceased husband's brother. But, curiously enough it was not applied.

They simply did not believe in the resurrection after life. Then, I suppose, she drank of the same arsenic in her old age, consequently she died. Now, if we admit the resurrection of the dead, the situation becomes intricate: in the future life which of the brothers will be her husband? For the Pharisees, the objection is extremely serious. They are convinced that eternal life is the perfection of this life. They, therefore, lowered their eyes, muttered some explanation and moved away quickly among the funny comments of those present.

Christ took the floor and answered: “The sons and daughters of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those of the other world … they are like angels … they are the sons and daughters of God” (vv. 34-36). This first part of His answer was directed to both the Sadducees and the Pharisees. The latter believed that after-life was going to be a continuation of this life on earth, plus a bonus of great meals, feastings, drinks and the rest.

It would make no sense to die and then return to the same body, the same life. Life with God is a completely new condition: when introduced into it, a person, while maintaining his own identity, becomes a different being, immortal, equal to the angels of God. Can anyone be sure, or say with certainty, how life after resurrecting from death is going to be? Can a caterpillar know, how his life is going to be before becoming a butterfly. Correct me if I am wrong, but could a baby in his mother’ womb know what life is when he goes out the mother’s womb.

It would be wise to quote a thought from the Book of Wisdom: “A perishable body is a burden for the soul and our tent of clay weighs down the active mind. We are barely able to know the things of earth, who then may hope to understand heavenly things?” (9:15-16). I think it would be wise to digest Saint Paul’s word. We can approach these sublime and ineffable reality only through faith, believing that those things that no eye has seen, no ear has heard, nor any mind fathomed, God has prepared for those who love him (1 Cor 2:9).

The mortal body gets sick, withers, ages and undergoes dissolution and is not introduced into the eternal world. It remains in this world: the person is invested with another body “incorruptible, glorious, full of strength, spiritual” (1 Cor 15:42-43). The second certainty is that the resurrection of Christ demolished all barriers that separated the living from the dead. An intimate and deep bond unites all.

When on earth, we, the living, gather around the Eucharistic banquet, we are in communion with the brethren in heaven. We are confident that our memory makes them happy, increases our love and theirs, rekindles our desire and hope to be united one day with Christ and with them. It’s worth repeating the last words: ‘rekindles our desire and hope to be united one day with Christ and with them.’ And who are ‘them’? Well our parents, wives and husbands, children, friends … and who knows who else? What a joyous treat.

Our flaws, mistakes, weaknesses will be totally purified by the encounter with the “fire” of God’s love. In us, no form of evil or death remains. That is why Christ said we will be like angels.