Let’s strengthen faith in eternal life.

This time in November has led many of you to thoughts or discussions about whether there is life after death. Perhaps you have read the book Life After Life by the American doctor Moody, who deals with Lazarus’ symptoms. The stories he describes happened to those who survived clinical death and were awakened to life. This may not yet convince anyone of the existence of life after death. Still, many are troubled by many ambiguities when reading it, such as understanding depersonalization, the great light, the tunnel, the wonderful feeling of joy, and so on. In this soulful time, Jesus wants to bring light to our doubts with today’s Gospel, which describes the meeting of the Lord Jesus with the Sadducees, who deny the resurrection. The Sadducees asked the Lord Jesus about the resurrection of those who have died physically, and we also often meet the Sadducees.

A group of Sadducees sought conflict to oppose Jesus. The Sadducee class came from the strict priestly class and became more of a political than a religious group. We may take them as a second Jewish sect, smaller than the class of Pharisees, with whom they disagree because they teach more strictly and have confined the revelation of God to the Five Books of Moses. They deny the resurrection and the immortality of the soul; they do not believe in life after death and in angels. Therefore, they tell Jesus about a fictional event that is directed against him. They refer to the Law of Moses, which orders: “… if someone’s brother dies who had a wife but was childless, his brother should marry her and beget offspring for his brother” (Lk 20:28). They also tell of a woman who, after the death of her husband, was married to his seven brothers. That is why they ask the Lord Jesus: “Well, which of them will be the wife of the woman at the resurrection?” After all, seven of them had her as a wife” (Lk 20:33). The Sadducees say there can be no life after death because then comic scenes would follow. The previous question formulated in this way is ridiculous. However, it is not because there are many similar questions even today. Today, when people talk about life after death, many people do not believe in life after death, ridicule and misinterpret it. For one group, this life is compatible with our life here. That’s why they try to live fully here on earth, and that’s all they expect from life. The second group speaks of the second life as a mystery that beckons man. However, it is vague and, therefore, similar to dreaming of an earthly paradise where one will not lack material things, goods, and joy. So, they see the second life after death as a worldly life of a higher quality.