Archbishop of Sydney

32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney
2 Macc 7:1-2, 9-14; 2 Thess 2:16-3:5; Lk 20:27-38

By + Cardinal George Pell
Archbishop of Sydney
11/11/2007

Even within the Catholic Church in Australia today there is considerable confusion and ignorance on religious questions.  Outside the Church I suspect the confusion is greater, which in turn also impinges on us as a minority.  The long term danger is that we are taken over by the majority culture, where the most active creative elements are often anti-religious.

While readily acknowledging this general confusion, I was still shocked and surprised by a number of items in the Generation Y report, especially by the data on belief in reincarnation i.e. that people had lived previous lives.  Almost four times as many young Catholics (35%) as Anglicans (9%) believed in reincarnation and the Catholic figure was double the rate for other Christians (17%).  It is not reassuring to be told that young Catholics are so much more superstitious than other young Christians!

The figures for belief in reincarnation are worse for Catholic baby boomers, i.e. those born after the Second World War (under 60s), with 41% of them believing this nonsense, while the 30-40 year old group have twice as many undecided as the Generation Y’s and only three-fifths as many firmly opposed!!

Years ago I never dreamed that I would have to start a sermon on life after death by insisting that Christians do not and should not believe in reincarnation, which is not taught by Christ or the Church.

Now let us return to this joust between Our Lord and the Sadducees.  I probably do not need to remind you that while Jesus sometimes taught in synagogues, especially at Capernaum, he generally spoke to mixed crowds in the open.  His followers were there, probably a larger group of sympathizers his opponents and a great mass of the idle, unemployed, the curious and always a number of sick and disturbed people hoping for a cure.  They wanted to hear what Jesus would say and how he would deal with the interjectors and opponents.

A second piece of background is to give a little information on the Sadducees.  Just as Christians today are divided into Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans and Protestants so there were first of all the Pharisees, strict, sometimes fanatical.  Jesus’ strongest critics and most of his followers came from among them.  There were also small communities of Essenes, not mentioned in the New Testament.

When the Jews returned from the Babylonian captivity the descendants of Zadok the High Priest were given the privilege of providing the priests for the Jerusalem Temple.  Zadok is remembered in the beautiful anthem composed by Handel which is always sung at the coronation ceremonies in Westminster Abbey for the Kings and Queens of England.

The Sadducees were connected with this group, but had expanded beyond the priests to become a small powerful circle of Hellenized aristocrats – the Jewish ruling establishment, with very little popular support.  This is the only occasion on which they are mentioned in Luke’s gospel, although they appear more frequently in Matthew.

Thoroughly liberalized and tempted to scepticism rather than fanaticism, they did not believe in the resurrection of the body.  Probably many of them did not believe in the immortality of the soul either, or in any form of personal life after death.

It is interesting to note that the objector phrased his question in a story, a type of parable.  One commentator suggests it was a typical Sadducee objection to the Pharisees’ position, who did believe in the resurrection of the body, but I am not so sure.  The crowd would have appreciated a new angle and an old objection would have left Our Lord too well placed to answer.

Against the Sadducees Jesus clearly emphasised his belief in life after death (and we basically believe in life after death because of his teaching), but he explained that life in heaven will be different as it will not be an earthly paradise.  Marriage is an institution for this life designed to ensure the continuity of the human race and will not be necessary in heaven.

Therefore the problem for the wife whose seven husbands, all brothers, who predeceased her, does not arise.  One wonders whether at least the younger brothers were nervous at marrying such a formidable woman!  The custom of such marriages whereby a brother had intercourse with his brother’s widow to continue the line was common among the Assyrians, Hittites and Canaanites and was taken into the Mosaic Law.  The Sadducees were wrong to presume that such earthly institutions would continue in heaven.

It was the Greeks who believed in the immortality of the soul, while the Jews in the 500 years before Christ were more likely to emphasize the resurrection of the body.  Early on the Jews only had a vague almost non-existent belief in a personal life after death.  Sheol and Hades were shadowy underworlds, where God could not be praised, although by the time of the book of Daniel the resurrection of the dead was affirmed.  There was no reference to the resurrection in the Torah, the original five books of Mosaic legislation.  It is also of some interest that the Pharisees believed that everyone’s soul continued to exist after death, but that only the good participated in the resurrection of the body.  This is not Christian teaching.

In conclusion what therefore is the classical Christian teaching of the Catholic Church on life after death?

We believe in life after death, the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body into a changed new heaven and new earth.

We do not believe everyone has a right to the happiness of heaven, but believe in God’s judgement, the separation of the sheep from the goats, of the good from the evil and selfish.

We also believe in purgatory, a time of waiting and purification so we will be worthy to enter God’s presence, able to cope with His Goodness and Love.  Therefore we pray for the souls of the faithful departed to speed them on their way.

In summary we believe in the four last things: death and judgement, heaven and hell.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.