THIRTY SECOND SUNDAY OF THE YEAR ‘He is not God of the dead but of the living’
‘How strange the fear of death is; we are never
frightened at a sunset’. So wrote Scottish Christian poet, George McDonald. The Sunday Gospels during the month of November, the month of the Holy Souls invite us to reflect in a deeper way on life and its destination. Our Celtic ancestors had a strong belief that our
relationship with a dead relative or friend does not end with his/her disappearance, but continues on a different plain. The Christian vision of life and death sits easily here. We too believe in the continuity between the here and the hereafter. We are citizens of both earth and
heaven, and death is but our second birthday. Our earthly pilgrimage is not so much a funeral march to the grave, but, rather, a victory parade to the place prepared for us, the place we call home. This is the reassuring message offered by Jesus in today’s Gospel, in answer to the question posed by the doubting Sadducees. It is a message that should banish our fear.
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