November 6, 2016 — Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
2 MC 7: 1-2, 9-14; PS 17: 1, 5-6, 8, 15; 2 THES 2: 16- 3: 5; LK 20: 27-38
The last verse of today’s Gospel Reading from St. Luke declares, “…and he is not God of the dead, but of the living.” This concept of the “living God” is used by the Lord to emphasize the power and assurance of the Resurrection. This explanation provided by Jesus to the Sadducees appears in all three synoptic Gospels: Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The term “living God” occurs several times in Holy Scripture.
In Psalm 84, for example, the psalmist sings “My heart and flesh cry out for the living God,” and later in that same psalm we hear, “O lord of hosts bless the man who trusts in you.” How often do we see the phrase “In God we trust?” — more often than we probably take note. Yet that is the exact message of Jesus to us in this Gospel.
Another phrase which may ring familiarly to us is, “Our hope is in the Lord.” Trust and the hope which results from that trust are at the heart of lives of stewardship. It is the “living God,” His covenant with us and His promise to us of everlasting life which allows us to trust Him and to have that hope which strengthens that trust.
Having hope in the Lord is what can give our lives meaning. At a World Youth Day in 200,2 St. Pope John Paul II opened his message to the young people gathered by saying, “Trust Christ because Christ trusts you.” Our trust in the Lord provides us hope. His trust in us fortifies us to be good stewards.
