The question we hear in the Gospel of the day, "After resurrection, whose wife will she be?" is quite a human question. We can judge it to be a very rude or arrogant question or one intended to put the listener into a catch-22 situation. But if reviewed from a simple and ordinary perspective, it can be said to be a very common question.
We human being are relational beings. We tend to work our way through life, by the relations we make or break. So for one to ask what would be her relation to the 7 husbands whom she married here on earth, is a very concrete and living question. It makes the situation all more volatile when I hear this passage being used to describe God as the God of the living and not of the dead. That interpretation of God actually puts God in contrast to the human life!! The very fact that she had 7 husbands it because the previous one died! So she did not have 7 husbands all at once. She only had one husband all along!! And now if we bring in the 'God of living' interpretation, all 7 are alive. And then to ask is she married to all 7 is a bit ridiculous!
The most sensible way I see this Gospel unfold for us the mystery of the resurrection is to challenge our understanding of relationship. I believe relationship is a commitment. Granted that every commitment includes boundaries and limitations; but if those boundaries and limitations over-ride commitment and the well being of those involved in the relationship, the connection is actually a strangulation, and all that exists is bondage! In resurrection, we live our commitment to one another to its fullest - even to God. Not as bonded labourers, who have no other go than to, but as free individuals who choose to.
We human being are relational beings. We tend to work our way through life, by the relations we make or break. So for one to ask what would be her relation to the 7 husbands whom she married here on earth, is a very concrete and living question. It makes the situation all more volatile when I hear this passage being used to describe God as the God of the living and not of the dead. That interpretation of God actually puts God in contrast to the human life!! The very fact that she had 7 husbands it because the previous one died! So she did not have 7 husbands all at once. She only had one husband all along!! And now if we bring in the 'God of living' interpretation, all 7 are alive. And then to ask is she married to all 7 is a bit ridiculous!
The most sensible way I see this Gospel unfold for us the mystery of the resurrection is to challenge our understanding of relationship. I believe relationship is a commitment. Granted that every commitment includes boundaries and limitations; but if those boundaries and limitations over-ride commitment and the well being of those involved in the relationship, the connection is actually a strangulation, and all that exists is bondage! In resurrection, we live our commitment to one another to its fullest - even to God. Not as bonded labourers, who have no other go than to, but as free individuals who choose to.
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