They deny that there is a resurrection

22 NOVEMBER (Lk 20,27-40)

The resurrection, in its dual mode or essence of life and eternal death, of light and darkness, of glory and dishonor; is an already acquired revelation in the People of God.

When the first brother had died in this manner, they brought the second to be made sport of. After tearing off the skin and hair of his head, they asked him, “Will you eat the pork rather than have your body tortured limb by limb?” Answering in the language of his forefathers, he said, “Never!” So he too in turn suffered the same tortures as the first. At the point of death he said: “You accursed fiend, you are depriving us of this present life, but the King of the world will raise us up to live again forever. It is for his laws that we are dying.”

After him the third suffered their cruel sport. He put out his tongue at once when told to do so, and bravely held out his hands, as he spoke these noble words: “It was from Heaven that I received these; for the sake of his laws I disdain them; from him I hope to receive them again.” Even the king and his attendants marveled at the young man’s courage, because he regarded his sufferings as nothing.

After he had died, they tortured and maltreated the fourth brother in the same way. When he was near death, he said, “It is my choice to die at the hands of men with the God-given hope of being restored to life by him; but for you, there will be no resurrection to life.”

They next brought forward the fifth brother and maltreated him. Looking at the king, he said: “Since you have power among men, mortal though you are, do what you please. But do not think that our nation is forsaken by God. Only wait, and you will see how his great power will torment you and your descendants.”

After him they brought the sixth brother. When he was about to die, he said: “Have no vain illusions. We suffer these things on our own account, because we have sinned against our God; that is why such astonishing things have happened to us. Do not think, then, that you will go unpunished for having dared to fight against God” (2Mac 7,7-19).

The Sadducees were living a very strange faith. They were God’s people but without the truth of their God. Their mind was the absolute principle toevaluate everything. Only the material reality existed for them. Whatever belonged to the spirit, the soul and the very Angels was denied by them. Life was only the one present on the earth. No other life existed. All of their teaching was of will, not of reason and not of revelation. They wished they could lead Christ the Lord to their own field. They ignore that Jesus himself is the truth. He is the only hermeneutical principle of every other truth both divine and human.

Some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, came forward and put this question to him, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us, ‘If someone’s brother dies leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother.’ Now there were seven brothers; the first married a woman but died childless. Then the second and the third married her, and likewise all the seven died childless. Finally the woman also died. Now at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be? For all seven had been married to her.” Jesus said to them, “The children of this age marry and remarry; but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. They can no longer die, for they are like angels; and they are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise. That the dead will rise even Moses made known in the passage about the bush, when he called ‘Lord’ the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.” Some of the scribes said in reply, “Teacher, you have answered well.” And they no longer dared to ask him anything.

Many books of Scripture were rejected by the Sadducees. They were not considered inspired by them. Jesus, in His divine wisdom, does not use any of these books. He appeals to the Book of Exodus, considered canonical by all, that is, containing the true revelation of God. Through it he shows them who the Lord they adore, is. He is the God of the living not of the dead. He is the Almighty God that will transform his worshipers making them in allsimilar to the Angels of heaven. You no longer need either wives or husbands. The heavenly life is quite different from that of the earth. This transformation is not a fruit of man. It is the true manifestation and the true work of God.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints give us the true Word of God.