GOSPEL: Luke 20, 27-38
Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini,
broadcast on Vatican Radio
Don
Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading ...
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."
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."
The Gospel of the Lord: Praise
to you Lord Jesus Christ
Kieran’s summary . . . The Sadducees did not believe in the
resurrection of the dead. They prepare a trap for Jesus by
presenting him with the case of a woman who marries and
becomes widowed seven times in succession. Which of them
will be her husband in eternity? For the Sadducees, this case
proves the absurdity of the resurrection of the dead. Jesus
dismisses this scenario with a single line! But how are we to
understand his answer? First, let us note that the difference
between Jesus and the Sadducees is profound and fundamental.
They were of a pragmatic and worldly mind-set, not believing
in eternity nor in the invisible. But, if we think about it,
neither did they believe in love! In order to believe in love,
we must believe in the eternal. I will love my spouse and my
children profoundly only if I appreciate their full dignity, a
dignity which goes beyond the here and now, a dignity which
endures to eternal life. In order to lay down my life for
someone else, I must believe that this life is not the be-all
and the end-all. Belief in the resurrection is the foundation
of my belief in the great dignity of the human person. But
what does Jesus say to the Sadducees? Is he telling them
that marriage has no importance in heaven? No! In fact,
he is saying the opposite. It is only in the light of heaven
that marriage on earth makes sense. If marriage is only
something earthly, if it is something that I do for my own
narrow interests, then it will never endure. If I marry my
spouse just to make myself feel good, then I will soon want
to get rid of her when things are not going so well. Jesus makes
a distinction between the children of the Kingdom of Heaven
and the children of this age. For the children of heaven,
marriage is a vocation that leads to the Father, through all
of its joys and tribulations. Marriage is not to be understood
with silly paradoxes like that posed by the Sadducees. It is a
sacrament, a mystery that leads us into union with God. The
same is true of other things in life. It is only from the
perspective of the eternal, the perspective of the resurrection,
that things attain their true meaning.
True love
is linked to our belief in the resurrection. It is because we believe in the
eternity of the person, of his fundamental dignity, that we are led to love and
respect others in the fullest sense.
In
the Gospel of this Sunday an absurd case is presented to Jesus, that of a woman
who marries and becomes widowed seven times, having married in turn all of her
husband's brothers. The Sadducees use this paradox to pose the question of which
of the brothers will have her as a wife in the afterlife. In their eyes, the
paradox reveals the absurdity of faith in the resurrection of the dead. The
Sadducees, in fact, did not believe in eternal life. It was a classic question
that led nowhere, but Jesus refuses to fall into the trap. It is worth noting
that the Sadducees will be the ones who will send Jesus to his death. They
belonged to a pragmatic mind-set that did not believe in eternity and had no
openness to the invisible. This is the real problem between Jesus and the
Sadducees. To believe in love itself it is essential to believe in the
resurrection. True love, of the unconditional sort, makes no sense for those
who do not believe in eternity. If I want to love someone in a complete way, I
need to be free from anxieties about the future. In order to love, I must be
able to die to myself. I must be free from the compulsion of defending myself
and my current mode existence. In order to feel alive I must be open to
eternity. How can we have children if we think that the future is ultimately
nothing? How can we do good or take care of others if we do not see the great
dignity that is written in the human person?
Is Jesus
telling us that marriage is not important? That it is only for this life? No!
He is saying the opposite! Marriage only has sense when we see it as being
oriented to God and to eternal life.
Jesus
alludes to all of this with his paradoxical answer to the Sadducees: "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”. Is Jesus saying that we shouldn't get married? That is not the point. Jesus makes a distinction between the children of this world (with their goals and strategies) and the children of the Kingdom of Heaven. It is one matter to marry for worldly reasons and another matter to marry to enter into God's plan. Marriage is a vocation that leads to heaven. It gives us the graces and tribulations that allow me to reach the Father. If a marriage is entered just to make me "feel good", it is doomed to failure. I will soon want rid of my spouse when I get tired of him or her, or if they make me suffer. I won't understand that there is something much bigger and wider that needs to be accepted even in difficulties. Those who live for the resurrection are like angels, Jesus tells us. An angel is a messenger, a person with a mission. Marriage is a mission, a sacrament. If we lose this perspective, it will not be surprising if we get bogged down in paradoxes. No one can understand the profound meaning of marriage unless it is deeply open to the Kingdom of Heaven. Marriage is for heaven; it is orientated towards God; it is because of this that it cannot be taken away by death. And this is true not only for marriage. Everything makes sense only if it is the path to eternal life. Otherwise it is a dead end.
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”. Is Jesus saying that we shouldn't get married? That is not the point. Jesus makes a distinction between the children of this world (with their goals and strategies) and the children of the Kingdom of Heaven. It is one matter to marry for worldly reasons and another matter to marry to enter into God's plan. Marriage is a vocation that leads to heaven. It gives us the graces and tribulations that allow me to reach the Father. If a marriage is entered just to make me "feel good", it is doomed to failure. I will soon want rid of my spouse when I get tired of him or her, or if they make me suffer. I won't understand that there is something much bigger and wider that needs to be accepted even in difficulties. Those who live for the resurrection are like angels, Jesus tells us. An angel is a messenger, a person with a mission. Marriage is a mission, a sacrament. If we lose this perspective, it will not be surprising if we get bogged down in paradoxes. No one can understand the profound meaning of marriage unless it is deeply open to the Kingdom of Heaven. Marriage is for heaven; it is orientated towards God; it is because of this that it cannot be taken away by death. And this is true not only for marriage. Everything makes sense only if it is the path to eternal life. Otherwise it is a dead end.
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