Will We Recognize Each Other In Heaven ~ by Ronnie Archer

Questions are always raised about "what happens after death?" There are many, many theories about what will happen to us when we die. Some believe that we just DIE and that's all of it. Others believe that we will be reincarnated. Our Christian faith teaches us about the Resurrection.

In today's reading, 2nd Maccabees 7, we hear of the mother, along with her seven sons, who were arrested and tortured because of their faithfulness to the Lord. Their faith, as well as their mother's, was how they were able to endure the sufferings and allow themselves to be tortured and killed, "at the hands of men, with the GOD-given hope of being restored to life by HIM." (V: 14)

Today's Gospel of Luke 20:27-38, is about those Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection, asking Jesus the question, "at the resurrection, whose wife would a woman be if she had married all seven brothers?" To which Jesus answered, "The children of this age marry and remarry; but those judged worthy of a place in the coming age, and to the resurrection of the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage. They can no longer die, for they are like angels; they are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise." (V:34-36)

We shouldn't worry about what HAS happened; nor what WILL happen. We should give thanks for all of our blessings now, develop and nourish relationships in THIS life, because we will not be able to have a human relationship with each other in heaven, as we do on earth. We WILL recognize each other, as the rich man did. After he had died and was buried, he "saw Abraham, AFAR OFF, with Lazarus, resting in his bosom." (Luke 16: 23) We will NOT have a relationship, as we now have because we are supposed to be united in a relationship with GOD.

No matter what happens here, we need to be aware that life is a gift while we are here on earth, living with joy, being thankful for our blessings, experiencing the love of God and what it means to be WITH God.

Death is the key to opening heaven. Without death, we cannot open heaven to live a new life.


~ Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time ~

~ Image by Hermano Leon Clipart