Weekly Reflections for November 6, 2022

Celebrating the Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time, we read further into Luke’s Gospel (20:27-38). In this passage, a group of Sadducees challenged Jesus’ teaching on the Resurrection. Quoting the Law of Moses, these men attempted to show that there would be no resurrection and that Jesus was a false teacher.

But Our Lord explained that the institution of marriage would not exist in heaven. He then cited Mosaic Law to show that God’s faithful people will indeed be resurrected into the glory of heaven. Jesus went on to compare the saints to the angels, that is, that they are immortal. The difference between angels and saints is that saints are resurrected along with their physical bodies, whereas angels have always existed as purely spiritual beings without flesh.

Although life passes quickly and our bodies age, there is lasting hope in Christ. He is the source of the Resurrection, and He wants us to rise in glory with Him. Stay close to Jesus in prayer, in good works, and in the Eucharist. He has such wonderful things in store for us.

The Catechism teaches us about the resurrection of the dead:

1000 This “how” exceeds our imagination and understanding; it is accessible only to faith. Yet our participation in the Eucharist already gives us a foretaste of Christ’s transfiguration of our bodies:

Just as bread that comes from the earth, after God’s blessing has been invoked upon it, is no longer ordinary bread, but Eucharist, formed of two things, the one earthly and the other heavenly: so too our bodies, which partake of the Eucharist, are no longer corruptible, but possess the hope of resurrection.

– Chris Brooks