They can no longer die, for they are like angels; and they are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise. - Luke 20:36

“If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that he said; if he didn't rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said? The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like his teaching but whether or not he rose from the dead.”

-Timothy Keller, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism.

          In all of the lessons you have learned about Jesus, in the faith you have accepted and have grown into, how far would you live up to His name and call yourself His? The first reading talks about seven brothers being tortured by a king, forcing them to eat pork in violation of God’s law. But even in great pain they endure, even with life at stake, they refuse not to let go of that faith they have in Jesus. For they believe that there is greater life after death given to the one who believe in Jesus.

In taking up Jesus in our life: There is faith and there is life. Like the seven brothers, we must have faith and believe that God is with us even in our dark times. When we face the realities of tomorrow, it scares us. But we don’t have to be afraid! Because it is that faith that drives us to be the person that Jesus calls us to be.  In every hardship we encounter, we feel like the life in us has been sucked out and it leaves us lifeless but knowing that God is always there we see that he doesn’t give us things we can’t handle and so he gives us that not to makes us feel lifeless but to see that in the life he has given us, he is always there. Like Jesus said in the Bible John 16:33 “ In this world you will have trouble but take heart! For I have overcome the world”.

In the Gospel Reading the Sadducees try to trick Jesus about marriage and the after life but then Jesus corrected them by telling them that in the after life nothing else matters, what you have on Earth you do not bring in heaven, there is no commitment, no responsibilities and no obligations in heaven. Every soul in heaven is pure, free and we will still have knowledge on spirituality. Our spiritual life continues there. It also talks about having one chance in everything, dying, living, life. But we must not fear death because death is one of the ways that we continue our life with God but more closer since we are with him and we will be able to enjoy the fullness of life with him forever.

- Keith Divinagracia

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