God is not God of the Dead, but of the Living"

Today's Mass Readings

The Sadducees (a Jewish sect) came up to Jesus with the hypothetical case of a woman who married seven brothers as each of them successively died. The Sadducees accepted the teachings of only the first five books of the Old Testament and in these books belief in the afterlife is not specifically mentioned. The case created by the Sadducees was meant to impress upon others the futility of belief in the after life. Jesus begins his answer to the Sadducees by pointing it our to them that the belief in life after death is actually found in the Pentateuch. That is why he declared at the end of today’s gospel reading, “That the dead will rise even Moses made known in the passage about the bush, when he called out ‘Lord,’ that 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” (Lk 20:37-38). The last statement of today gospel reading becomes the most hopeful statement in all of scripture. The God we believe in, is a “God of the living and not of the dead and to him all are alive.”

The Eucharist is very important from the perspective of life here on earth and life with God. As Catholics we believe in the communion of saints. This means that at every Eucharist we gather not only as this community but we worship God with all the angels, saints, our ancestors and all those who are with God. Our God is the God not of the dead but of the living. This Eucharist, then, is our real time connection with the God of the living in whose presence all those who have died constantly worship God. This Eucharist is a celebration of life. That is why Jesus said, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life (Jn 6:54).

Let us celebrate the God of the living who offers us eternal life.

- Fr. Satish Joseph