Friday, November 21, 2014

33rd Week, Ordinary Time, Saturday, 22-11-14

Rev 11:4-12 / Luke 20:27-40

A relic usually consists of the physical remains of a saint or the personal effects of the saint.

And there are even classifications of relics: First-Class relics are items directly associated with the events of Christ's life (manger, cross, etc.), or the physical remains of a saint (a bone, a hair, skull, a limb, etc.); Second-Class relics are items that the saint wore (a shirt, a glove, etc.); Third-Class relics are any objects that are touched to a first- or second-class relic.

In the practice of venerating the relics of the saints, we make a connection and a communion with the holy. We unite with the saints and ask for their intercession.

If such can be said about the relics of the saints, then the resting place of the deceased in the cemeteries and columbaria will remind us that although they have died, yet they are existing now in a different dimension.

As Jesus says in the gospel passage, God is not God of the dead, but of the living, for in Him all men are in fact alive.

And in the 1st reading, we heard about the two witnesses of God who were killed but God raised them to life. God is indeed the God of the living and the Lord of life.

So if there is life after death, then what lies ahead is far better than what lies behind us. There are far better things ahead than anything we have left behind (C S Lewis)

But if we keep living in the past, with its failures, regrets and disappointments, then we become a relic in the present that is meaningless and even hopeless.

But if we truly believe in the God of the living and the God of life, then the relics and the memories of the past become living testimonies of life and love. Let us be that living testimony.