What’s it like in heaven? Angels flying around playing harps? A beautiful landscape bathed in sun? Gazing  upward at a Light? Praying and singing on a constant basis? Total silence and a deep sense of tranquility? Who really knows, this side of Eden, what heaven will be…IS…except God?

The sadducees didn’t believe in the Resurrection of the dead, nor in the  afterlife. They were teasing Jesus because they felt his belief in the Resurrection of the dead was absurd and they gave the silly example of the wife and seven husbands. If there is an afterlife, which of the 7 brothers would be her husband, providing God doesn’t sanction polygamy?

They’re missing the point, thinking only in physical terms and in ways logical to our experience of life. God is a living God of those who are fully living. In life after death, we will still have relationships, love, passion and emotion, but the Living God will be at the heart of all relationships, connecting us and nourishing us with the Banquet of Love. And I truly believe there will be food, actual food, at this banquet; Jesus, Himself, enjoyed breakfast on the beach with friends. 

Yes, there is a life after death, continuous  with the one we are living in time, but different, because the Living God, will always be present and the shadow of death will be no more. Death and God is a type of oxymoron that eluded the sadducees. Only God and Life/Love exist together. Whose wife/husband will be the partner’s is a question with its own answer: we will be partners to each other. In terms of sex, well… I’ll give that some thought. 

November is the month of the Souls and reconnecting with loved ones who are living fully with the Living God. We WILL see them  again, we will hug them, we will talk with them, we will eat and drink, we will journey with them. When body and soul come together, as Jesus promised, that’s when the party will truly begin. All those who have “passed over” are waiting for us so the party can really get started. 

Peace. Fr. Frank