The One Thing Necessary

Voice over by Angeline Chue Chue

1Macc 6:1-13; Psalm: 9; Lk 20:27-40

Memorial of Saint Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ, on this Memorial of Saint Cecilia, the Church presents us with a striking contrast between a dying king’s lament and the Lord’s teaching on eternal life. In a world obsessed with power and pleasure, the witness of a virgin martyr and the truth of the Resurrection call us to fix our hearts on the one reality that endures: the God of the living.

The first reading from First Maccabees offers a profoundly sad scene. King Antiochus, once a mighty ruler, lies on his deathbed, consumed not by peace but by regret and despair. He recounts his conquests and his plunder of the Jerusalem Temple, and he concludes, “I now recall the evils I did in Jerusalem… I know that this is why these evils have overtaken me; now I am dying of bitter grief.” His life, for all its power and wealth, amounts to a pile of sorrowful memories. He placed his hope in treasures that decay and a glory that fades, and at the end, he is left with nothing.

This earthly despair is met with divine hope in the Gospel. The Sadducees, who deny the resurrection, pose a cynical question about a woman married to seven brothers. They imagine the afterlife as a mere extension of earthly realities, and in doing so, they reveal their own limited understanding. Jesus corrects them, revealing that the risen life is a transformation into a new mode of existence. We will be “like angels,” children of God and children of the resurrection. Then, He gives the ultimate proof, rooted in Scripture itself: God identifies Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. “He is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.” Our hope is not for a shadowy existence, but for a vibrant, eternal life in God.

This is the Catholic faith in its fullness—a faith that transforms how we live and how we die. Saint Cecilia, whom we honor today, is its radiant icon. As a virgin martyr, she understood this perfectly. She consecrated her virginity to Christ, the true Bridegroom, recognizing that earthly marriage, good as it is, points to a greater, eternal union. When forced to marry a pagan, she told him of her heavenly Spouse. When threatened with death, she sang in her heart to God. She knew that the God of the living was her true possession, and so she could let go of everything else, even her earthly life. Her martyrdom was not a tragic end, but the final, joyful note of a life already lived for Heaven.

As Pope Benedict XVI taught, “The martyr does not die for an idea, but for a Person, for God.”

The comfort for us is immense. In our own struggles, disappointments, and grief, we are not like King Antiochus, facing a meaningless end. Our sufferings, when united to Christ, have eternal value. The challenge is to live with the priorities of Saint Cecilia. Do we live for the passing treasures that lead to regret, or for the God of the living? Do our daily choices reflect our belief in the resurrection?

Let us ask for the intercession of Saint Cecilia. May her joyful witness inspire us to live not for the temporary, but for the eternal; to love not only with an earthly heart, but with a heavenly one. For we are called to be, even now, children of the resurrection, alive forever in the God of the living. Amen.

May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.