32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

He is not God of the dead, but of the living. (Luke 20:38)

It’s clear that the Sadducees were trying to trip up Jesus when they presented the hypothetical situation of a woman who was married to seven brothers over her lifetime. The Sadducees were an influential group who thought that their strict adherence to the first five books of the Bible (the Law of Moses) left no room for belief in the resurrection of the dead. They thought that presenting such a scenario to Jesus would stump him—and give them reason to accuse him of blasphemy.

But Jesus turned their question around and used it to affirm the promise of the resurrection. Those “deemed worthy . . . to the resurrection of the dead” won’t be married in heaven, he told them. They will be like the angels—immortal (Luke 20:35, 36). Quoting from the Law of Moses, he said that God would not call himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob unless these patriarchs were also living (Exodus 3:6). He is God of the living, “for to him all are alive” (Luke 20:38).

This is indeed good news! Even though we will all one day experience physical death, we will still be alive to God. How could we not be? At our baptism, the immortal and eternal God came to live in us. When we are striving to live our faith, not even death can separate us from God. Someday, when Jesus comes again, he will raise our bodies to new life as well.

The more we hold fast to these truths, the less we will fear death. Rather than looking at it as an ending, we will view it more as a passageway into a new and better life.

This doesn’t mean that we won’t feel some apprehension or anxiety about dying. After all, we really don’t know what heaven will be like. But we can choose to trust in God’s promises. We can believe that if we follow the Lord today, our tomorrow will be brighter than we can possibly imagine.

Jesus, thank you for destroying death so that I may live forever!

Meditations  10 November 2019 ~ The Word Among Us