Closed Minds
Saturday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
My dear encountered couples:
The point of the argument, or discussion, between the Sadducees and Jesus was whether or not there is a resurrection of the dead. The dilemma the Sadducees posed about the woman with seven husbands, asking whose wife would she be come the resurrection, was only a ploy to try to confuse the issue. Clever people who don’t want to believe something can always invent an argument that makes truth seem ridiculous. Have you ever done that?
You have your mind made up. Someone presents a contrary idea. They even have proof on their side - the bible, tradition, the encyclopedia, common sense and what-all. But your mind is already convinced, you don’t want to be confused by anybody, by sound reasoning nor facts. So you try to make your opponent look ridiculous by coming up with some idea that makes his argument look absurd, when it really is your argument that is absurd.
Holding on to an opinion, even a religious one that we have held from our earliest days of childhood, can be dangerous to our spiritual health if it is not the truth. The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. And no one was going to convince them otherwise — not Moses, not Abraham, not even the Son of God. Keeping our minds open is not easy. But we must.
Let’s at least try, so that any false concepts that might be in them can fall out, and any true teachings that come along might find an entrance. Yes, dear Sadducees, resurrection of the dead is a truth, and other things you might deny are also true.
