Finally the woman also died.Now at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be? For all seven had been married to her.
Lk 20:27-38
Some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, came forward and put this question to Jesus.
The Pharisees believed in the Resurrection. The Sadducees do not. In Juda-ism itself there is division. There is no unity of belief. Among Christians there is also division. There is no unity of belief.
Among us Filipinos there is also division. It is not a problem of unity of belief. The problem is that there is no unity of vision and no unity of action. And until this is solved we shall continue to be poor and we shall continue to see Filipinos leaving the Philippines in order to find well-paying jobs abroad. Why is this a problem? I talked to a kababayan on the way to Testaccio some Sundays ago. She told me that she used to work in the Middle East. She was earning big. But she had to return to the Philippines because her children had become problematic. They stopped schooling and married early. In other words, the phenomenon of Filipinos going abroad to work has consequences for families.
Finally the woman also died. Now at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be? For all seven had been married to her.
Why was this a problem for the Sadducees? Because they were thinking that the afterlife will be the same as life on earth. But Jesus in effect told them that things will be different in the next world. There will be no problem about who the husband will be because in the next life there is no such thing as marriage.
We can learn something from this. We can learn to look at things in a differ-ent way. This is called reframing. And it can make a world of a difference in our lives.
I have a relative who is a millionaire. They were nine siblings. Her father died during the Japanese occupation. To make ends meet, the mother sold fish in the market. For her to be able to study, she had to rely on her aunt who was a public school teacher. She could have looked at her situation as a closed door. In other words, she could have decided that since she came from a poor family, there was nothing she can do about it but remain poor. But she didn’t look at her situation as a closed door. She looked at it as a mountain to climb. In other words, she decided that she can rise above her poverty. And she did.
When St. John Bosco asked Rome to officially recognize his religious con-gregation (which we now call the Salesians of St. John Bosco), so many difficul-ties cropped up that he said that if he knew this would happen, he would not have attempted to have it recognized at all. But what kept him going? He didn’t look at his congregation as his work. It was God’s work and if it was God’s work, then God will find a way to have it approved.
The way we look at things can make a world of a difference. If things are not going well with your life, it might be time for you to do some reframing.
He is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.
Since we are in the month of November, let me talk about death as the last point.
Someone asked me if it was true that when someone dies he stays in this world for 40 days and only after that does he go to heaven. I told him that is not true. When one dies, he is judged and he goes right away to heaven or to hell or to purgatory. Maybe someone got that idea because after his resurrection, Jesus stayed 40 days more in order to prepare his disciples for their mission. Only after that did he ascend into heaven.
Another asked me whether I believe in ghosts. I replied, “If you mean dead people who come in order to scare you, my answer is a big no. But if you mean dead relatives who show themselves for some reason, especially if it is to ask for you prayers, my answer is yes.” I never saw a dead relative. But my brother when he was little saw our aunt (who we just buried) waving good-bye. She was at the roof of the house and it was in broad daylight. My Rector in college saw his dead friend sitting on his bed. It was morning. The friend didn’t say anything. But my rector offered a mass for his soul. It is good to pray for our dead relatives because they may still need our prayers. And believe it or not, we can also ask them to pray for us.
For us Christians, death is not the end of the story. Death is just passing on to another kind of life. And one day on the Resurrection of the dead our bodies will again be united with our souls and will be transformed like the bodies of Jesus and Mary. And that is why Christians had a different name for their burial places. Pagans called their burial places “necropolis” or city of the dead. Christians called their burial places “cemetery” or place of rest. Why? Because for us death is just like falling asleep. One day the dead will all wake up and rise to new life—on the last day, the resurrection of the dead.
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The Salesians of Don Bosco is a religious congregation of priests and brothers dedicated to the welfare of the young. If you feel called by God to give your life for the good of the young, you may want help in discovering if this is really God's will for you. Please get in touch with the Vocation Director (Don Bosco North Province, Philippines) - 0917-7930112 - finvoc@yahoo.com - Bro. MON CALLO SDB.
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