November 14, 2017 – Tuesday of 32nd week in Ordinary Time – Wisdom 2:23-3:9

     Our first readings this week are from the book of Wisdom.  Part of today’s reading is often the first reading at our Catholic funeral mass.  Wisdom declares that “the souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them”. Many in our world still believe that when our earthly existence comes to an end, there is no more life for us. Yet, the book of Wisdom sees a different destiny for those who place their hope in the Lord.  Our reading concludes today by asserting: “grace and mercy are with his holy ones, and his care is with his elect.”  We started the month of November with the celebration of All Saints Day and All Souls Day. These important feast days in our Catholic faith are in the spirit of what we hear from the Book of Wisdom today.

      Josephat was one of the saints we celebrated earlier in the week.  I think of him in the context of today’s reading from Wisdom, how his belief in the Gospel and the eternal life that Christ proclaimed propelled him to work towards unity and peace in his ministry.  Josephat was a bishop in present-day Belarus in the early 17th century.  He was killed by an angry mob because he was advocating that his community of Christians, who were Ruthenians and who were a part of the Orthodox Church, be joined in full communion with the Roman Catholic Church.  There is so much division in our world and in Christianity as well, even in our modern era, just as there was in Josephat’s day.  When the Roman empire was split into the East and the West in the 4th century, it foreshadowed what was to come about in the 11th century, when a great schism split the Church in the year 1054. There have been signs of reconciliation and friendship in recent years between the Churches in the East and the West, but, unfortunately, Christianity still remains divided.
       We think about the struggles, the challenges, and the obstacles we have to overcome on our journey here on earth. The eternal life we hear about in today’s reading from Wisdom is to encourage us and to give us hope on the journey, to help us live out the calling God has for us in life.