Children's Liturgy Series: 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle C)

In today's Gospel, Jesus talks about the resurrection and gives us a hint at what we will be like in Heaven.

Come Holy Spirit, fill our hearts and our minds. Fill us with your peace, love, and understanding. Help us to hear God's message today and recognize His voice in our daily activities. Amen

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 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 deemed 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 out 'Lord, 'the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive."

Invite the group to imagine what happens after a person dies. Let them elaborate on what they think or what they have heard others say.

Say: There are many things that we do not know about our life after we die, but the most important things we do know.

Explain : The Sadducees were a group within Judaism in Jesus' time. As the Gospel tells us, they did not believe in resurrection. Other groups within Judaism in Jesus' time did believe in resurrection. Some Sadducees tested Jesus with a question about what happens after a person dies; their question had to do with marriage. Jesus' answer suggests that life after death will be different from our life on earth. 

Ask: What were some of the things that Jesus suggested about life after death?[Allow all reasonable answers.] Then suggest the following: Jesus' response to the Sadducees shows that we sometimes miss the most important things about what God has planned for us because we get stuck in the details of human existence. Jesus wants us to open our minds and hearts to the possibilities that God has in store for us. Our imaginations are too small when it comes to God!

Say: Our faith tells us that when we die our life is changed, but it is not ended. This is good news because we know that we will continue to share a relationship with God even after our death.

Father in heaven, for the sake of bringing others closer to you, we give you today, all that we think and do and say, and we join it with all that was done by Jesus Christ, your Son. Amen