Delivered by Father Peter Tukan, SDB from Salesian Don Bosco Gerak in the Diocese of Labuan Bajo-Flores Barat, Indonesia. 1 Maccabees 6: 1-13; Rs psalm 9: 2-3.4.6.16b.19; Luke 20: 27-40.

CURIOUS ABOUTLIFE AFTER DEATH

The title for our meditation today is: Curious AboutLife After Death. A teenager has just become an orphan. His father and motherpassed away consecutively last year and in the middle of this year. When manypeople came to mourn his mother, they expressed their sadness and criedemotionally.

But the teenager remained calm and welcomed everyonewho came. Many people asked why he didn't look sad and moved with emotion. Hereplied that he only cried in the early moments of his mother’s death. Afterthat, he felt peaceful and full of hope. He believed his mother would meet hisfather in heaven.

This young man's belief that his mother and father arealive in heaven must not have been accepted and believed by the Sadducees asshown in today's Gospel reading. They do not believe in the resurrection of thebody, nor in the existence of heaven. Therefore they also do not believe in theexistence of angels. They only believe that heaven is the joy and contentmentof this world.

Is the notion that there is no bodily resurrection andno heaven still around us? We who follow this meditation daily and are committedto the authentic faith in Jesus Christ certainly do not fall into thatcategory. We also do not want to risk forcing ourselves into the group ofpeople who do not believe in bodily resurrection and eternal life.

Behind that risk is a situation like a person whomeets a dead end after going through the twists and turns of life in thisworld. The end of it all is death and nothing else. If the end or ultimate goalis death, the spirit of life and the focus of the people in this world is onlyto enjoy this world in all ways and situations. For them, after death there isnothing else to acquire and enjoy.

Let us think for example on marriage and family life. OurChristian faith does not teach us to accept death as the end of life in thisworld, but it teaches us to accept and believe in the new life in theresurrection of the body and everlasting life. In that new life all people arespirits who see one another as brothers and sisters and as children of God. Theyno longer need a life like before death. The spirit cannot marry, the one whomarries is the body. We just need to prepare ourselves to welcome death andthen resurrection. Each of us must first be convinced, then we need to convinceothers of this very important element of our faith.

If anyone is curious about what life after death willbe like, the only one who has sure answer is Jesus, because only He has raisedfrom the dead. We just need to listen and follow him.

Let us pray. In the name of the Father... O merciful Lord,strengthen our faith in the resurrection of the body and eternal life that wealways long and pray for. Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the HolySpirit... In the name of the Father ...