There is a time, in every life, where we learn how to ask the right questions. I estimate that time to be around the end of our third year, throughout our fourth year, and even sometimes into our fifth year. I make that estimate based upon my experience with my nephews and my niece, and to be quite honest, even with your children. Every child goes through it. All of us did it. With some adults, they never grow out of it. But it is that time of non-stop, incessant questioning. For example, I had a conversation with one of our younger members this past week that went like this: “Why do you wear black?” “I wear black because it’s cool to wear black. Just look at Johnny Cash and Elvis.” “Who’s Johnny Cash and Elvis?” “They are old, dead people.” “What’s that little thing under your neck?” “That would be my body.” “No, No, what’s that little white thing under your neck?” “It’s a collar, sort of.” “Is it like the one that my dog wears?” “Well, sort of, except it doesn’t kill ticks and fleas.” “Where’s your wife?” “I don’t have a wife, I’m married to the Holy, Roman, Catholic Church.” “Does the Church make you take out the garbage like my mom makes my dad take out the garbage?” “All the time.” “Who’s your boss?” “Why do you want to know?” How do they keep coming up with those questions. Kids are amazing.

Today in our Gospel, the Sadducees are just like kids. They love their questions. And the Sadducees were very good at asking just the ‘right’ questions. In particular, they are good at asking the ‘trap’ question. The Sadducees are convinced that if they can ask a question that Jesus can’t answer, then they will make Him look foolish. And so they ask a question about the resurrection. Now, the Sadducees don’t believe in the resurrection That’s why they are “sad”, don’t you see? So they ask this exaggerated question, to which they believe it is impossible to give a good answer. Jesus appears to be amused by the Sadducee’s question. He even appears to be making fun of their thinking that the resurrection is going to be like this life. He chastises their foolish assumptions that Heaven was going to be like this world. Jesus points out that God has a whole other world that is completely beyond the Sadducees wildest imaginations. And yet, it is the world, the way of life, that is revealed to us by Jesus. Jesus has come to put God’s people in touch with a whole new reality, a different set of rules, and a different way of understanding. Jesus is the way. The Sadducees are so busy playing their silly games, that they miss the answer to their question.

Jesus is really attacking their attempt to play God, to define things from their own limited, erroneous perspectives. They raise arguments and seek solutions only from those finite limits. And this is not just a problem for the Sadducees. How many times do we do the same thing? We think that we know. We think that we are so smart. We think that we have all the answers. Then, like a four-year-old, we just keep asking useless questions. And Jesus is asking us to see things differently. We are asked not to live based upon the ways of this world, but to live entirely for the world that is to come: Heaven! The Resurrection of Jesus re-orders everything. The Sadducees can’t understand this because they don’t believe in resurrection. And Jesus is saying this before He is resurrected Himself. Following Jesus brings us into a whole new reality. We are not to impose our ideas, based upon the limitations of this world, on the future God has in store for us. This gives us hope. This opens up everything. This is where the mother from our first reading from 2 Maccabees, gets her hope, as she watches her seven sons die for what they believe in. And so too this is where we get out hope, that no matter what happens to us in this world, God has bigger and better things in store for us. Isn’t this also exactly what St. Paul is exhorting us to persevere towards, in the second reading? Of course, it is.

The games, the questions, the way of life of this world are useless. We only think that we know and understand what’s going on in this world. Jesus is the true reality. He and His way are what Heaven is truly about.

The Sadducees are asking the wrong questions. They don’t get it. They have Jesus, the answer to the right questions, standing right in front of them, and still, they don’t get it. If we really want to understand Heaven and the resurrection and what this life is really all about, Jesus is our answer. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. The real question we need to answer is the one that Jesus Himself asked His Apostles, “Who do you say that I am?”. New life does not come from having the right answers to the wrong questions. New life comes from having the right answer to the right question: “Who is this Jesus to you?”.

Our future depends on our answer. Let’s get the questions straight. Even more importantly, let’s get the answers right.

May God bless us today and give us hope, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit… AMEN !!!

St. Maria Goretti… Pray for us !!!