Gospel: Luke 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.
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Reflection:
The story is told about a man who did not believe in the resurrection. So
he did everything that he wanted to do including many actions that made him
very sinful. When he was dying already he saw Satan at his bedside and he asked
Satan: “Why are you here?” Satan
immediately replied, I’m here to bring you to my kingdom so that you can spend
the rest of your life there.
It’s very hard to think that there is no resurrection like what the
Sadducees believed. For example if there’s no afterlife what then is the
purpose of our life in this world? What then is the purpose of our worship and
faith in an eternal God?
We follow Jesus and we try to live His teachings because we believe that
by doing so. We would be with our Lord after our earthly journey is over
already. To deny that there is no resurrection is like to deny that there is no
heaven and hell in the afterlife.
But we know that there is heaven and hell and this heaven and hell is not
an exclusive domain of the afterlife. For example, if we live our life in this
world contrary to the teachings of God. We would experience hell even while we
are still alive. On the other hand if we live our life according to the
teachings of the Lord we would experience heaven even if we are still here in
this world.
There is resurrection and there is an afterlife. We must believe this
because this is the teachings of our faith and this is the reality. Therefore,
we have to live a life that is worthy in the eyes of the Lord. We have to avoid
whatever forms and shapes of sin, why? So that we can begin to prepare for our
own resurrection in heaven someday.
Do you believe in the resurrection? – Marino J. Dasmarinas
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