A reading according to the holy Gospel Luke 20:27-40
Some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, came forward and put this question to Jesus, saying, "Teacher, Moses wrote for us, If someone's brother dies leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first married a woman but died childless. Then the second and the third married her, and likewise all the seven died childless. Finally the woman also died. Now at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be? For all seven had been married to her." Jesus said to them, "The children of this age marry and remarry; but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. They can no longer die, for they are like angels; and they are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise. That the dead will rise even Moses made known in the passage about the bush, when he called 'Lord' the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive." Some of the scribes said in reply, "Teacher, you have answered well." And they no longer dared to ask him anything.
REFLECTION:
“…and he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive."
Here we are at the very end of the Catholic church’s liturgical year praying for the dead and Jesus is talking to the Sadducees who do not believe in the resurrection. They tried to make sense of it all by asking Jesus about the dead being resurrected, as if the risen will live as they did on earth. It reminds me of non-Catholic relatives of mine that do not believe in praying for the deceased or praying for the intercession of saints as if they remain dead. I have heard many times that the saints are just dead people. I personally don’t understand how a person can believe in the resurrected Jesus and not think the saints are resurrected.
Our God is a God of the living. As Jesus states the “dead will rise”. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are living. They don’t cease to exist because they died on earth. The resurrection is meaningless without acknowledging we worship the God of the living. God created all to live, not die and remain dead.
Let us spend this last week of the liturgical year praying to understand the truth of death and life. This will help us to live a true faith in Jesus Christ. We should pray for our priests to teach us God’s truth which will lead us to everlasting life. And when we are called home, may God deem us worthy.