Friends, in today’s Gospel, we see Jesus sparring with the Sadducees about the general resurrection of the dead. The discussion is an important one, since we Christians place Jesus’ own Resurrection at the center of our faith.

What’s important in this Gospel passage is affirming that the resurrection is a bodily event. Notice how, in the accounts of Jesus’ particular Resurrection, the concrete, physical facticity of the Lord is continually emphasized. This confirms that what we await, as Paul said, is a spiritualized body, a transformed, elevated body, a body raised to a new key and a new dimension—but it will be a body.