THIRTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, NOVEMBER 6, 2022

MASS READINGS

A reading of the holy Gospel according to Lk 20:27-38

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 out '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."

REFLECTION

he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive

Today's Gospel is about the truth: the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. The Sadducees ridiculed the doctrine of the Resurrection and were anxious to embarrass, trip, trap and trick Jesus. The question posed was far fetched.

And so this became a teaching moment. Jesus affirmed life after death with men physically dead but not spiritually dead. They lived on because of their immortal souls. Our beliefs are expressed and loudly announced when we recite the Creed. Without the resurrection all hope is lost.

Our souls are immortal and upon death the soul leaves the body. The body returns to clay. The body and the soul will be reunited at the end of time for an eternal destiny and glorified body. With the glimpse of our eternal reward we should change our attachment from this world and fix our eyes on Jesus without any hesitancy.

Through His resurrection Jesus overcame death and gave us hope in eternal life.

God Bless You