Daily Scripture Reflection & Prayer: November 25, 2023

Date in the Ordine: Saturday of the 33rd Week in Ordinary Time

Scripture Text: Luke 20:27-40

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 '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." Some of the scribes said in reply, "Teacher, you have answered well." And they no longer dared to ask him anything.

Breaking the text open – background and summary:

The gospel reading for today from Luke recounts Jesus’ exchange with a group of Sadducees, a priestly aristocratic party that accepted only the books of the Pentateuch as divinely inspired scripture. They did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. Knowing this, Jesus’ response to their question focused on the LORD’s identity as given to Moses in Exodus 3 and identified the Father Almighty as the LORD of the living.

When Jesus speaks of what will happen to us after our life here on earth, of our life in “the coming age,” He notes that there is no marriage as here on earth but that is not to say that earthly love is forgotten or denied. We must remember that in Jesus’ time, the primary reason for marriage was for propagation of offsprings. In the life to come, there will be no such reproduction or need for offsprings. Rather, the focus will be on our loving relationship with our LORD and with all those present around the throne at the heavenly banquet.

Meditating on the text with personal questions:

Do I believe in life in, with and through the LORD after my life here on earth is over? Do I believe in the LORD as the LORD of the living, that there is life after this one on earth?

Praying:

Loving LORD of life, fill me with your transformative love so that I might live into being the one You created me to be, a person of deep faith and buoyant hope, fueled by love for You and for all my sisters and brothers. Grant that I may be deemed worthy to attain life in abundance from You, through You, and in You in the coming age. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be world without end. Amen.