November 6 – Thirty second Sunday in Ordinary Time : Heaven is our Home

First Reading  2 Maccabees 7:1-2,9-14
Jewish martyrs give witness to their faith, even unto death.

Responsorial Psalm  Psalm 17:1,5-6,8,15
The just person will live in God's presence.

Second Reading  2 Thessalonians 2:16—3:5
Paul encourages the Thessalonians and asks for their prayers.

Gospel Reading
Luke 20:27-38 

In today’s Gospel we find Jesus in reply rejecting the caricature thatthe Sadducees present of heaven, a caricature that suggests that it is a simplecontinuation of the earthly relationships of the spouses. Eternal beatitude isnot just an increase and prolongation of terrestrial joys, the maximization ofthe pleasures of the flesh and the table. The other life is truly another life,a life of a different quality. It is true that it is the fulfillment of allman's longings on earth, yet it is infinitely more, on a different level.Interpreting Jesus' answer to the Sadducees, in an erroneous way, some haveclaimed that marriage has no follow-up in heaven. He does not deny that theymight rediscover in God the bond that united them on earth. If God united themon earth, how could he divide them in heaven? According to this vision,matrimony does not entirely end with death but is transfigured, renewed andmade holy -- it loses those limits that mark life on earth -- in the same waythat the bonds between parents and children or between friends will not beforgotten. In the preface of the Mass for the dead, the liturgy says that withdeath "life is changed, not taken away"; the same must be said ofmarriage, which is an integral part of life. Let us look forward to a gloriouslife in heaven.