Today’s gospel is about believing or not believing in life after death. The Saducees did not believe in life after death or in heaven. The Pharisees were believers of life after death. I believe there is life after death. Jesus explains that those who are worthy enough to enter heaven can no longer die. Our God is a God of the living. The second reading has St Paul encouraging his followers to continue revealing the teachings of Jesus. He tells them “may you be delivered from perverse and wicked people, for not all have faith, but the Lord is faithful and will protect you from the evil one.” The first reading shows us people being brutally tortured. But the victims are saying, “it is our choice to die at the hands of brutal men with the belief that we will have life with God in heaven once we die on this earth.”

Surely all of us are familiar with how brutally some people have been tortured by wicked men, and you wonder why so much of that has happened throughout history and even today. I believe that many times, it starts with some people believing that they are better than others and belittling those they don’t like, making fun of them, bullying them. Eventually, hatred steps in and spreads like wildfire. Then the injustice, the torture and the killing begins. Jesus came down from heaven to teach us that we must learn to love others as much as we love ourselves. Nobody is perfect. Only God is perfect. God loves everything and everyone He ever created. In God’s eyes all humans are created equal. His words to us are “Love one another as I have loved you.” Let us remember that hate does not come from God, but it comes directly from Satan and he knows how to use it to his advantage. Satan is very powerful so it is necessary to pray to God for protection from him.

Thanks be to God

Lloyd Lapierre