Heaven Is For Real
Jesus said, “Those who are deemed worthy to attain the resurrection of the dead
neither marry nor are given in marriage. They can no longer die,
for they are like angels.” Luke 20:27-38
32nd SUNDAY Ordinary Time Cycle C
A lot of people today doubt. They doubt God. If He exists, why does He not give what they ask Him. Some people doubt if the devil exist too. They think there is no more bad or good. Still a few doubt if there is really a heaven. They question if heaven is for real.
There was a four-year-old boy named Colton who died and saw heaven. During a surgery for appendicitis, he was dead only for a few minutes but it was enough for him to see angels, deceased relatives and yes, Jesus. It seemed he was on a long vacation in heaven. Incidentally, his dad, Todd, who was a pastor, had a spiritual crisis of his own at that time. They made a film on this entitled “Heaven Is For Real”.
Even in the time of Jesus some Jews did not believe that heaven existed. The Sadducees did not believe in life after death. In today’s gospel episode they present a problem to Jesus – the case of a woman who married seven brothers. According to Jewish law “If someone’s brother dies leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother.” But all brothers died leaving the woman childless. Their question was whose wife will she be in the afterlife – was if there was an afterlife. It was a riddle meant to disprove the resurrection from the dead.
But Jesus answered it well saying, in heaven bodies are glorified. They need not eat for there would be no more hunger and thirst. Even tears, pain, sorrow including sex are gone.
Furthermore in heaven everyone is present. There is no old or new people because there would be no time. There is no people of the past nor people in the future but all people would be present in the now. And God remains as the God of all these people.
A lot of early Christians were martyred by the Romans for belief in the resurrection. Yet also in the Old Testament some Jews too died for believing the same. From the book of Maccabees we hear of a mother and her seven sons killed for this reason. 2 Mc 7:1-2, 9-14
This month when we pray for our beloved dead, we too believed that they would rise to heaven. Like them we believe that heaven is also our home for real!
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