Today's readings can be found: [HERE]
In our gospel passage today, some Sadducees try to ensnare Jesus with a ridiculous conundrum, believing that practices from this life are incompatible with the life of the Resurrection, as if the resurrected life is merely a continuation of this life.
But that is not the case. In short, Jesus tells them that eternal life is a different stage of life, not merely a continuation of life as it is now. Marriage is of this life, but it will not be present in the same way in the Resurrection.
Even from a natural standpoint, we understand how our stages of life can change from one stage to another. For example, our lives began at conception, but the way we lived in the womb is very different from now. In the womb, we received nourishment, breathed, sensed, etc. in a certain way. Now we do those things differently. Likewise, in the life of the Resurrection, we will exist with even fewer restrictions. As Jesus, now resurrected from the dead, is no longer bound by time or space, I'd imagine that we will also experience that same level of freedom and mastery over the material universe in our resurrected bodies.
But you'll notice that Jesus does not give a clear picture of the Resurrected life in our gospel passage. Nor can he. After all, imagine trying to describe the color of a rose to someone who has never been able to see. Or imagine trying to write to someone a description of the sound of music to someone who has never been able to hear. While that person might feel certain sound vibrations, he or she will never experience the music of Beethoven or Mozart in the same way as someone with hearing. The color of a rose and the sound of music cannot be taught to the same degree to one without sight or hearing respectively. They can only be experienced.
(Incidentally, the same is true for love. Love cannot be taught, per se. It can only be experienced. Thanks be to God for giving us that experience directly through his own love revealed on the Cross, or indirectly through the love of others. But I digress).
Neither can the life of the Resurrection be taught. It can only be experienced in the Resurrection of the Dead, reserved for those who embrace that life now through faith. It can be ours now in seminal form, and reach the fullness of perfection in the life to come. May God bless you.
Feast in the House of Simon the Pharisee, by Peter Paul Rubens, c. 1618
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