Reflection on November 11, 1981

https://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/jp2tb63.htm

We dive deeper into Christ answer in regards to marriage after the Resurrection. This stems from a battle between the Sadducees and the Pharisees. We see how Christ answers the question, but I was wondering how the Pharisees would have answered it. Did they have an answer to this question? When reading debates between Protestants and Catholics, there are always the “go to” objections they each have for the other and the answers in response, like Jesus having brothers in regards to the virginity of Mary. I wonder if this type of question was a “go to” for the Sadducees when in their debates with the Pharisees about the Resurrection.

I wonder what the Pharisee’s reaction to this answer was. You would think they would be delighted that He was on their side to the debate.

Michelle has never liked this teaching. She has never liked the idea that we are not married after the Resurrection. That is a sad way of looking at it, but I think an earthly way as well. After the Resurrection, we will be closer to all than we have ever been before. You will know your spouse in such a more intimate way than you ever did on earth that there is no need for marriage. It is just something that we cannot comprehend until it happens and because we do not understand it, it makes us question it and makes us nervous.

I look at the Sadducees and see that they have a literalist interpretation of the Septuagint, much like those Protestants that believe in Sola Scriptura. We must look at Christ example in debating them and learn from this. Christ does not talk about something they do not understand, but goes directly to the thing they believe in so much and uses that to debate them. He shows them in the Scriptures that they thought were the only authority that they are misinterpreting it. God of Abraham, etc. God is of the living. He points to the very source they use that they are wrong. We must do the same. When you are debating a Sola Scriptura Protestant, you cannot quote to them from the Catechism. You must rely on Scripture to show them their misinterpretation. The Catechism may lead you to the answer, but you must use what they use to guide them from their error, or you will get nowhere.