If a woman marries seven men and remains widowed of all, on the day of the resurrection, which of them will be her husband?
Homiletics of the Fathers of The Island of Patmos
IF A WOMAN MARRIES SEVEN MEN REMAINING WIDOW OF ALL, ON THE DAY OF THE RESURRECTION, WHICH OF THEM WILL BE HER HUSBAND?
“Those who are judged worthy of the future life and resurrection from the dead, they take neither a wife nor a husband: in fact they can no longer die, because they are equal to the angels and, for they are children of the resurrection, they are children of God".
Author:
Gabriele Giordano M. Scardocci, o.p.
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Dear Readers of The Island of Patmos,
"So the woman, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be?? For all seven had her to wife"
this Sunday prompts us to reflect on the theme of the resurrection of the flesh, therefore of our daily relationship with God. A relationship of love and vital momentum towards us, like that of a tender and affectionate Father who never frees himself from his children, which, however, at the same time empowers individual freedom.
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In Holy Gospel of today Jesus must first of all answer the question of the Sadducees who use the law of the Levirate to try to trap him and make him contradict. The present Levirate Law — in Genesis and Exodus — required the widow of a Levite to marry her brother and bear children, who would then be recognized as offspring of the first husband. So, the Sadducees exacerbate this Law which created precise constraints on the members of the priestly caste, because they believed neither in the resurrection of the flesh nor in the immortality of the soul. Here then is the question-trap:
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"So the woman, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be?? For all seven had her to wife".
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Jesus knows well that that question is asked to question his words and his work. It serves the Sadducees to discredit him in front of the crowds that had begun to follow him, but to answer and overcome the fallacious objection it offers an articulated answer. The central point of the answer lies in these words:
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“Those who are judged worthy of the future life and resurrection from the dead, they take neither a wife nor a husband: in fact they can no longer die, because they are equal to the angels and, for they are children of the resurrection, they are children of God".
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The children of God are children of the resurrection and they never get married. This is in summary the Lord's answer which explains how marriage - a reality definitively consecrated by Jesus when he blessed the wedding at Cana and transformed the water into wine - is a dual path and a couple's journey, but first and foremost a path to personal and spousal holiness. Therefore a path that accompanies the couple until the resurrection.
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This is the deep meaning: there is life after death. From the beginning of our existence we have always been accompanied by the Lord. We were born and we will never die again. Therefore God, ever since we were tiny embryos in our mother's womb, he has always showered us with love. With Baptism we then entered the perspective of Children of God: that is, adopted by God as children to be nourished and sustained at all times. Between us and God there is a radical and dependent relationship. Without Him we can do nothing.
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Understand well that there is a horizon that goes beyond matter and horizontality. There is a dimension of eternity to which we are all called. Then it's up to us, to our freedom and our free will to respond responsibly and freely before the vocation to eternity that awaits us. Let's rediscover it in such a way as not to end up in conjectures of pure ephemerality, typical of the Sadducees.
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Scriveva Soren Kierkegaard: "Nothing finished, not even the whole world, can satisfy the human soul that feels the need for the eternal».
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We ask the Lord to rediscover our thirst for eternity, to ground our every daily act of kindness and love in the Love of Jesus, the one who decided to love us to the end.
Amen
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Santa Maria Novella in Florence, 5 November 2022
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