He is not God of the dead, but of the living
M Mons. Vincenzo Paglia
00:00
03:51

Gospel (Lk 20,27-40) - At that time, some Sadducees - who say that there is no resurrection - approached Jesus and asked him this question: «Master, Moses has prescribed to us: «If the brother of someone who has a wife but has no children dies , his brother take a wife and give descendants to his brother." There were therefore seven brothers: the first, after having married, died without children. Then he took her the second and then the third and so all seven died without leaving children. Finally the woman also died. So, at the resurrection, whose wife will the woman be? Since all seven had her as wives." Jesus answered them, “The children of this world marry and are given in marriage; but those who are judged worthy of the future life and of the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage: in fact they can no longer die, because they are equal to the angels and, since they are children of the resurrection, they are children of God. rise again, Moses also indicated this in relation to the bush, when he says: «The Lord is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob». God is not of the dead, but of the living; because everyone lives for him." Then some of the scribes said, "Master, you have spoken well." And they no longer dared ask him any questions.

The commentary on the Gospel by Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia

The Sadducees do not believe in the resurrection, they are "realistic" and "material" men who ultimately believe only in what they see and believe they can verify, frame, with a law. And they polemically pose a question to Jesus, the hypothetical "case" of a woman who, having been widowed, remarries according to the law. After whose death will she be his wife? Those men read life with the eyes of the law, of the rule, they deny the resurrection, that is, they believe that death is the end of everything, and they believe that this can easily be demonstrated starting from the law and the rule of evidence. Not believing in the resurrection means not believing in hope, living in resignation that nothing can change: how many times does this idea of impossibility also become our law? When you don't believe in the resurrection, the law of evil and death always seems to prevail. Jesus does not surrender to this law, but responds with the realism of faith. The Sadducees believe in the law, but do not know how to look at life. They know the "cases" but cannot give answers. Well, Jesus, responding to the Sadducees, tells us the opposite: "The children of this world marry and are given in marriage" (that is, they live everything as a habit, and affections as a possession); «but – continues Jesus – those who are judged worthy of the other world and of the resurrection from the dead... are equal to the angels and, being children of the resurrection, are children of God». There is another possible world, there is a different world beyond that of our present. The resurrection is life that does not end, it is a window onto eternity, where there is no longer the law of man to regulate relationships between men and women, but only the love of God, which is the love of a father towards his children. Too often we accept that we are only children of this world, of its absurd laws that separate, distinguish, exclude. Today Jesus asks us to begin to be children of the resurrection, and live as "angels", sent into the world to take care of our brothers, to build an "elsewhere" compared to the world in which we live.