Please read the Scripture passage before the homily.
The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and God of Jacob has to be alive. Dead people and dead gods are not usually remembered. When people ask me how many siblings I have, should I tell them just the number of those still living or the total number? I have had eleven siblings, but only six living now.
The Sadducees, we are told, did not believe in the resurrection. Does this fact invalidate their argument? Why did Jesus not answer, “Why raise the question since you do not believe in the resurrection?” The Sadducees seem to have been stuck on one part of the Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures).
Jesus’ answer is to take them to another part of the Torah where God is revealed as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Our memory of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob somehow keeps them alive for us. When we remember our ancestors, we somehow keep them alive in our hearts. When we pray that God remember our deceased loved one forever, we are asking a living God to keep our loved one alive somehow and not consign them to eternal darkness and forgetfulness.
A god of dead people is not much of a god. A god of the dead is as dead as the dead people themselves. We are all in the everlasting memory of God. We live and are alive because God is the God who has life and who gives life.
We ought not blame the Sadducees. It took many centuries for us humans to come to an appreciation and belief in an afterlife. Even today wise people continue to reflect on life beyond the grave and what that means for people. Our belief in resurrection is based on the resurrection of Jesus. As he rose and is alive, so we believe that those baptized into his death and resurrection will share in that resurrection also.
The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, will raise up us into the glory of Jesus Christ. This living God is alive and the source of our life and all life.