＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊   

1 Maccabees 20:27-40

 

Ps 9:2-3, 4 &6, 16 & 19

I will rejoice in your salvation, O Lord.

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊      

Luke 20:27-40

 Then some Sadducees arrived.

These peo­ple claim that there is no resurrection and they asked Jesus this question, “Master, in the Scripture Moses told us: ‘If anyone dies leaving a wife but no children, his brother must take the wife, and the child to be born will be regarded as the child of the de­ceased man.’  

Now, there were seven brothers; the first married a wife, but he died without children; and the secondand the third took the wife; in fact all seven died leaving no children. Last of all the woman died. On the day of the resurrection, to which of them will the woman be wife? For the seven had her as wife.”

 And Jesus replied, “Taking husband or wife is proper to people of this worldbut for those who are considered worthy of the world to come and of resurrection from the dead, there is no more marriage. Besides, they cannot die for they are like the angels. They too are sons and daughters of God because they are born of the resurrection.

 Yes, the dead will be raised, and even Moses implied it in the passage about the burning bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. For he is God of the living and not of the dead, and for him all are alive.”

 

Gospel Reflection：

The question of the one bride and the seven brothers is not a seaech for the truth. The Sadducees are not there to look for an answer. They have their own agenda. They hope to catch Jesus in their carefully crafted question, and thus to demonstrate how “foolish” ideas of a resurrection from the dead are.

For this group believes that there is no resurrection of the dead, The purpose of this question is not to “get Jesus into trouble,”but to further the dogma of this group. If Jesus, the most noted and famous teacher alive, could be stumped by their question, then He would reluctantly be an endorser of their view.

Then the table is turned. Jesus demolishes their claim by saying that in heaven, earthly ties will be transformed. This pleased the teachers of the Law who are present. They hold the opposite view from the Sadducees.

Even though these rival groups had come to some kind of alliance (formally or informally) to rid Judaism of Jesus, they still had their own pet dogmas and practices, their own “sacred cows,” which they could not leave alone, even for a short period of time. The rivalry and competition are still here, even in the midst of this inquisition.