The Gospel for The memorial of St. Cecilia, virgin and martyr, is taken from Luke 27, 40th verse. Some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, came forward and put this question to Jesus, saying, teacher, Moses wrote for us, if someone’s brother dies in leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first married a woman but died childless. Then the second and the third married her, and likewise all the seven died childless.

Finally, the woman also died. Now, at the resurrection, whose wife will that woman be? For all seven had been married to her? Jesus said to them, the children of this age marry and remarry. But those who are destined worthy to attain to 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, and they are the children of God, because they are the ones who will rise, that the dead will rise.

Even Moses made known in the passage about the bush when he called Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive. Some of the scribes said in reply, teacher, you have answered well. And they no longer dared to ask him anything. One of the things that Jesus brought into consciousness in his story as it unfolds in the New Testament is how we have to go beyond the logical, beyond the ordinary, enter the world of mysticism and mystery. And in this particular passage, it seems to me the Sadducees are using their minds and Jesus is inviting people to live not so much in your mind, but in a heart relationship with God and intimacy with him, where the promise is, nothing will harm you and you will always live, nothing can destroy you.

After the music, I will close with a prayer. Sam. Foreign. Father, bless us with the confidence that comes from knowing who youo really are. Help us not to ever doubt that yout plan for us is that we grow, we evolve, we become more who we are, and we ultimately live with youh forever. And we ask this in Jesus name.

Amen.