2 Maccabees 7:1-2, 9-14

The two books of Maccabees describe a period of persecution suffered by the Jews about 150 years before Christ. At that time, they were a nation subject to Syria whose king tried to force them to abandon their religious customs. Today’s passage describes the resistance of one family, whose bravery became legendary.

2 Thess 2:16-3:5

In his first letter to the Thessalonians, Paul had told them always to be prepared for the Lord’s coming in glory. Some of them became preoccupied with the date when the Lord would come. The second letter to this community addresses that situation.

Luke 20:27-38

Bishop Untener's Homily

What Happens When We Die?

Did you ever wonder what happens to us when we die? Where do we go - to God right away? How quickly do we go there? What are the sights and sounds like? What do we look like?

We all think about that now and then. And because we have to use familiar images, we picture the best things in this life, and project them into the next. Some might picture heaven as a huge golf course. Or a hockey rink. Or, playing bridge or euchre forever. Or eating whatever you want, even chocolate.

There's nothing wrong with that, as long as we realize they're only images.

In today's Gospel passage, Jesus makes it clear that life after death is not just an extension of this life. He speaks of this age - our conditions on earth - and the age to come, and says the two will be very different. It's not simply an extension of this life with some minor improvements. What happens after death is a transformation that we can't even imagine.

St. Paul's Explanation

St. Paul addressed this question when some of the Christians in Corinth denied that there is a resurrection of the body. They accepted the resurrection of Jesus, but said that it was an exception. The rest of us, they said, may live on as spirits... but there is no resurrection of the body. Paul doesn't waffle on this. He says that we rise bodily from the dead. Then he gets into the question of what the body is like. Here are some excerpts from that section:

"Some will ask, How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come back?'" [Paul then uses the image of sowing a seed.] "What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And as for what you sow, you do not sow the body that is to be, but a bare seed, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body... and to each kind of seed its own body... Listen, I will tell you a mystery... we will all be changed. For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality." (from 1Cor. 15:35-53)

I want to pursue that analogy Paul uses. If we had never seen a rose, but held the seed of a rose in our hand, looked closely at it, studied it, we wouldn't even come close to picturing the shape of a rose, its color, its fragrance.

We believe in life after death. Further, we believe in human life after death - bodily life. But the age to come is beyond our imaginings - as different as a rose from its seed. Risen human life is something eye has never seen, ear has never heard.

So we use images, but we have to remember that they are only images. Life after death is far more than an extension of this life with some improvements. We are transformed.

God

Now closely related to this is something about God, and it's something we need to think about.

Sometimes we imagine God in limited terms, our own terms. But God is not simply a "super-person" God is not like us but a lot better. No. God is far, far beyond anything you and I can picture or imagine. All we can do is use symbols. God is beyond any category we know.

• God exists, but God is beyond our category of existence that we know.
• God is "personal," not a blind force, but God is beyond the category of persons.
• God is living, but beyond the category of life.
• God is loving, and love is wondrous, but God is beyond even our category of love.
• God is powerful, but beyond any category of power we know.
• God is good, but beyond any category of goodness we know.

That's what we mean in religious language when we say that God is a "mystery." A "mystery of faith" is not like a puzzle we haven't figured out yet. A "mystery" is so great, so different, that we can't fit it into our brain. It's beyond us. Glorious. Wonderful.

St. Thomas Aquinas was probably the greatest theologian Christianity has ever had. He wrote volumes and volumes of very deep theology and these have endured 800 years since his death. In his later years, Thomas had some sort of a mystical experience and afterward he said: "Everything I've written... it's just a piece of straw... just a piece of straw."

We have to be careful not to trivialize God, sell God short. We can use images, but we have to know that they are images. We picture God as a father, mother, shepherd, judge, rock… But they are only images. One of the mistakes fundamentalists make is to reduce God to the size of our own thoughts. They act as if they know all about God. They take everything literally, with no room for symbol or metaphor.

Now... the wonder of it all is that God, who is so far beyond our best categories, connects with us. That is the greatest mystery of all, something we simply cannot understand - how God, who is totally outside everything we know... how God can connect with us. But God does. God connects with us. And through God's gift, we can connect with God. We, limited though we are, can experience God. God, somehow, makes us his daughters, sons. We have God's life in us. It is unimaginable. It would be like adopting a tree as your daughter... and it's way beyond that. Yet, God is present to us, within us, around us. God relates to us, loves us, cares for us.

Enjoy God

The great truths of our faith are meant to be enjoyed, celebrated. We need to enjoy the wonder and awe of our God. So enjoy this. Don't always try to picture God. Just be with God and open yourself to God being with you. Experience the wonder and awe of it. Think grand thoughts. Think no thoughts... just experience God. There is an ancient form of Christian prayer called the "Cloud of Unknowing". You rinse your mind of thoughts, images, and you simply experience God. It's a matter of being with God, and knowing it.

I'm going to sit down now, and invite all of us, in silence, with our minds freed even from trying to think, and simply experience the wondrous presence of God within each of us, all of us. It's a wonderful way to prepare ourselves for the Eucharistic prayer, when we will join with Jesus on the cross as he entrusts himself entirely, totally to God.

I invite us all now to spend 60 seconds in silence, and just be still with God.

Originally given on November 11, 2001