Gospel (Luke 20:27-38). Jesus deals with a question posed by the Sadducees about the existence of an afterlife.
The liturgy today is focused on the assurance of an afterlife. It is a splendid hope. Life is not a journey to nowhere. It is a journey to the promised land of eternal life.
The First Reading is taken from 2 Maccabees. A feature of this book is its confident teaching on the afterlife. Today’s reading tells the story of the martyrdom of a mother and her seven sons. This is an example of the resistance of the Jews against their conquerors. The woman and her sons drew their strength from faith in the resurrection of the just. And it is this belief which connects the reading with today’s Gospel.
Jesus is drawn into the argument which went on between the Sadducees and the Pharisees regarding the resurrection. The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection; the Pharisees did.
Jesus used the insincere inquiry as an opportunity to deliver a genuine teaching. The first thing he did was to challenge the assumption that the afterlife is just a continuation of this life. He made it clear that there is no comparison between this life and that of the resurrection.
Then he went on to use another argument to support belief in the resurrection of the dead. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is the living God who still is with his people. God is a God of the living and not the dead.