Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today's Mass Readings

The Seed of Eternity

The Sadducees in our Gospel today represent many people today who live as if this life were all there was. But like today, there was another part of the Jewish people who did not accept this unbelief. This belief has been put beautifully by the Jewish rabbi, Abraham Joshua Heschel: “Six days a week we wrestle with the world, wringing profit from the earth; on the Sabbath we especially care for the seed of eternity planted in the soul.”

Our Lord, present with us in the Liturgy the Church celebrates, tells us that there is an eternity to be welcomed, not only at the end of our lives but now. Each week, when we celebrate the Lord’s Day, and every time we celebrate the Holy Eucharist, we rejoice in this eternal life. We rejoice that we are called to be with the risen Body of Jesus in the fullness of life now and in eternity.

This is a true sanctification of time. In our times, we so readily get caught up in what society accepts as important—the moment-to-moment occurrences of life. We get captivated by what is happening in the present moment, often unfolded before us on a screen. But the moment may be important while it is present, and then it passes on to the next moment that is impressed on us as important. So human consciousness and even a human mentality can become constructed of these segments of occurrences: one impression after another. Then the impression of what is pressing on us in the moment becomes the all-important thing: what I’m feeling, what I’m thinking, and how I am reacting at a given moment.

These impressions are not irrelevant for our lives but they do not offer us the mentality of Christ. Christ lives in eternity but he is with us here on earth, in all our moments. He keeps his head in eternity and his feet on the ground. In passing over from life, through death, to the new, risen life, Jesus Christ has bridged the gap between time and eternity. No longer does the value of human life consist of a series of human impressions that tend to guide our thoughts and actions. Rather, in the mystery of Christ comes a new way of living: each moment offers us a new beginning of eternity.

If we are willing to practice it, we can give our busy lives this new way of living. I refer to practicing, in brief moments, vacating our minds of thoughts, good or bad, that are concerned with what we are to do or not do, what we are thinking or not feeling.

Rather, what is God doing in my life? One example from the Psalms is in Psalm 40:
I waited, I waited for the LORD, and he stooped down to me; he heard my cry.
He drew me from the deadly pit, from the miry clay.
He set my feet upon a rock, made my footsteps firm.
He put a new song into my mouth, praise of our God.

In other words, we school ourselves to become aware that we are creature, God is Creator.

As we have come from him so are we returning to him. It is the Risen Christ who is leading us, day by day, hour by hour!

Reflection by Fr. Xavier Nacke, OSB