HOMILY OF MSGR. DIEGO MONROY PONCE; GENERAL AND EPISCOPAL VICAR OF GUADALUPE, RECTOR OF THE SANCTUARY IN THE XXXII ORDINARY SUNDAY.

November 11th of 2007

I EXPECT THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD AND THE LIFE OF THE WORLD TO COME

Brothers, let us praise to the Lord of life; to God that does not want the death of the sinners, He wants them to live and their conversion; in order to they live in the fullness that He has given from the eternity. A different and superior life that today is preparing us, and which we will achieve with the death, as a gift of His mercy.

In this Sunday the final phase of the liturgical year starts. These three Sundays with which the year finishes, have in common that they invite us to reflect on the outcome of the History. The topic of the resurrection of the dead is proposed this Sunday, in the following Sunday the topic of the second and definitive coming of Jesus is presented, the last Sunday of this month; we celebrate Christ, King of the Universe that promises the Paradise to us.

My brothers, the general and personal History has an outcome that starts with death. For faith it is that, a beginning; everything does not finish with the death, we expect the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come, as we say in the Nicene Creed every Sunday.

My brothers this present life is not everything. If it were like this, it would not be worth, because everything would finish with death. All our projects in spite of they were the noblest ones, they would make no sense. We, the believers, think that there is something beyond death, even more, there is somebody that is waiting for us in an encounter of love which gives fullness and sense to everything: the definitive encounter with the God of life.

The resurrection of the dead has its foundation in the fidelity of the God of the Alliance; that alliance sealed in the love with the humanity through His Son Jesus Christ. In fact, God created us in order to be happy eternally. And we can achieve it just being beside Him, after death. In fact, during the life that we all are living as humanity or individually, we are verifying that everything is unfinished. If we do not believe in the resurrection, we will live in the permanent frustration, failure and disappointment, in an existential sadness. Dear brothers, I invite you to see how the readings of this Sunday express these truths of faith.

We have in the second book of the Maccabees the first time that the hope of the resurrection of all the just ones is affirmed in Israel; although the author (second half of the century II before Christ) only refers to it to the martyrs, the belief are going to progress until the point to affirm it for all those that die in the friendship with God, as it was believed in the times of Jesús. The condition for us, the Christians, is the fidelity to God through faith, with the consequence of that God will give us His own life. This is the difference between Jewish faith and Christian faith: the eternal life is not a prolongation of the earth life; it is the life in God.

Jesus teaches us that in the passage of the Gospel in the context of a discussion with Jews of the sect of the Sadducees. They, who denied the resurrection before the Pharisees, approach Jesus with a question that looks for ridiculing the faith in the resurrection. I think that Jesus answered in a very subtle way, making them to see that it is ridiculous the supposition about life after death is a prolongation of the present one in which the sexuality has a lot of importance.

In the other life everybody will be alive to God, because He is not a God of dead; He is a God of the living, but with a life totally different and superior from this one. Dear brothers, even though recognizing the depth of this mystery, it must be very clear to us that resurrection does not mean reviving, even though in the ordinary language we compare them. Living as risen ones means living in a new, different and superior way that it is already possible to die. It means living like God lives. This is our faith.  

Brothers, this is work of the wonderful mercy of God, who is good and faithful infinitely to His promises and to Himself, and it is the cause and the foundation of many certainties of the faith that we have in Jesus Christ, Lord, true God, redeemer and brother, who is worthy of all our confidence and love. From the certainty of our resurrection by Christ and in Him, comes our joy and our peace. Only if we have this certainty of faith we, the believers, will be able to see death as the beginning of the definitive chapter, it is like the possibility of something that is superior, like the great manifestation, even more, like the great experience of  God’s love. It will be the fulfillment of what He has promised us.

Brothers, we must not accept the critic that others could do to us, that in fact is done by our enemies, like the ones of Jesus: when we are living with this belief, we are evading our responsibilities in the present life. My brothers it is not like this. For that reason we have to show that we have compromise with this world, that we are convinced that achieving what we expect depends on this persistence.

This is what we keep in mind when we meet to celebrate the Eucharist every Sunday. This weekly encounter with God and with the community in the holy celebration is the most solemn occasion of our faith in the resurrection when in the memorial we make present the passion, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, in that act we are affirming in faith that He lives and is present between us. We do not give cult to a dead, we give cult to somebody who is alive and that gives already life in abundance.

My brothers, this certainty is what motivates us to work for justice and peace in our society; it is what animates us to live in solidarity with those that have fallen in any type of misfortune or that do not have the necessary things to live with dignity. In brief, this is the deep reason for which we give our hand to help our brothers of Tabasco and Chiapas, and others that live near us. May our sweet Lady of Heaven, our loving little girl, companion and mother sees with amiability our faith. May she encourages our faith with her intercession and example.

Amen.