32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time [C]
November 6, 2022
Luke 20:27-38

In today’s Gospel, the Sadducees attempt to test Jesus. Sadducees are a religious faction in first-century Judaism like the Pharisees, but unlike the more popular Pharisees, they only hold Torah as the only valid source of Jewish religious teachings and practices, and refuse the writings of the prophets, the wisdom books, and later traditions. One of their main teachings is that they do not believe in the resurrection of the body. Jesus and the Pharisees though always in debate, they share in a common fundamental belief in the bodily resurrection. Later on, the resurrection of the body will be one of the Christian core beliefs.

Thus, to ridicule this kind of belief, the Sadducees are using the practice of the levirate marriage. In the Law of Moses, there is a practice to secure the bloodline and inheritance of a man who does not have any offspring. As a solution, the brothers or relatives of the diseased man will marry the widow and produce offspring in his behalf. Then, the Sadducees move to checkmate position. “In the resurrection, whose husband, this woman be?” There will be confusion in heaven!

Yet, Jesus makes it crystal clear that in the resurrection, men and women are living like angels, and marriage is no longer needed. There will be no confusion in heaven. However, we can go deeper and ask, “If marriage is no longer necessary in heaven, why do we need to have it here on earth?

The first answer is that marriage is a biological necessity, like the need to eat, to rest, and to breath. It is necessary for our survival, especially as a species on earth. Yet, if marriage is just biological need, then why does the Church honor greatly the marriage? Why does the devil and his cohorts try their best to destroy the traditional institution of marriage? Marriage must not be only about biology, but also God’s design for men and women. Marriage is not just biological or cultural motivated, but divinely planned. Yet, if marriage is part of God’s plan, why does it cease in heaven?

The answer lays on the purpose of marriage itself. Marriage is a means for men and women to give themselves totally in love. It empowers us to go beyond ourselves and love radically. It is a way of holiness, a staircase to heaven. Now, if we have reached our goal in heaven, then the marriage, as the means, is no longer necessary. Marriage has served its purpose.

This is the reason that holy marriage is fundamental on earth. The Savior also raises the dignity of marriage to a sacrament because it is truly a means of holiness (see CCC 1601), just like the sacrament of baptism or penance. Before men and women become like angels, we must live fully as human persons on earth, and one of the best ways to make us live fully as men and women of God is marriage.

Rome
Valentinus Bayuhadi Ruseno, OP