First reading: 2 Mc. 7:1–2,9–14

It happened that seven brothers with their mother were arrested and tortured with whips and scourges by the king, to force them to eat pork in violation of God’s law. One of the brothers, speaking for the others, said: “What do you expect to achieve by questioning us? We are ready to die rather than transgress the laws of our ancestors.”

At the point of death he said: “You accursed fiend, you are depriving us of this present life, but the King of the world will raise us up to live again forever. It is for his laws that we are dying.”

After him the third suffered their cruel sport. He put out his tongue at once when told to do so, and bravely held out his hands, as he spoke these noble words: “It was from Heaven that I received these; for the sake of his laws I disdain them; from him I hope to receive them again.” Even the king and his attendants marveled at the young man’s courage, because he regarded his sufferings as nothing.

After he had died, they tortured and maltreated the fourth brother in the same way. When he was near death, he said, “It is my choice to die at the hands of men with the hope God gives of being raised up by him; but for you, there will be no resurrection to life.”

Second reading: 2 Thes. 2:16–3:5

Brothers and sisters: May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting encouragement and good hope through his grace, encourage your hearts and strengthen them in every good deed and word.

Finally, brothers and sisters, pray for us, so that the word of the Lord may speed forward and be glorified, as it did among you, and that we may be delivered from perverse and wicked people, for not all have faith. But the Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one. We are confident of you in the Lord that what we instruct you, you are doing and will continue to do. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the endurance of Christ.

Gospel: 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.” 

In other words 

Fr. Emil Lim, SVD (Catholic Trade, Manila)

You will remember the same dilemma about heaven: If the eldest brother died at three years old and the youngest died at ninety, when the meet in heaven, who will be older? Will heaven restore the hair on may head and fix all that is imperfect in me? These and all the laughable jokes about heaven and eternity are just variations of the Sadducee’s test question to Jesus.

Resurrection is the main issue here, not marriage. The Sadducees are trying to be funny and ridiculous in their mockery of the resurrection. We may laugh at the seven brothers’ case, all unfortunately married to one black widow and died. But the central question about everlasting life is dead serious, and that is how Jesus answered the question. Jesus is in Jerusalem and is probably just days from his impending death and resurrection. What the Sadducees see as a joke is for Jesus very much real. So what do we learn from Jesus here?

“In death, life is changed, not ended.” Yes, there is resurrection, and eternity is real. Something awaits us on the other side, and we better think about it seriously for the good of our souls. It will be unimaginably different as heaven to earth. Most of the things that matter to us here and now, like love life, will not be as important in the next life. When Jesus said, “those who are deemed worthy of attaining the next age and the resurrection from the dead…,” we get the clue about reward and consequence. Jesus seems to have given us good pointers for what really matters.

Until we arrive at the eternal presence of God, the good news is the HOPE of the resurrection. It is the assurance of Jesus in today’s Gospel of the certainty of what God prepares for those who trust in him—no more death, we will be like angels, above all, we are children of God. In the eyes of people, we are dead, but “as far as God is concerned, everyone is living.” Once we arrive at the Highest Good, to what would marriage, age, physical perfection, wealth, and reputation be compared?

The challenge is to live life now in view of the life to come. It is helpful to remind ourselves of the reason for being by asking the practical question, “What makes you wake up every morning?” Likewise, a Christian should ask, “What is the point of religion and being a church member if not for our faith and hope in the resurrection?” A person whose present realities are not shaped by the expectation of resurrected lives lives a meaningless life.