If you happen to read scripture in St. Paul’s writings, you find that in St. Paul’s writings, there is an immediacy about which they think Jesus is gonna come back from…come back again, come back from Heaven and visit us again. There is an immediacy they think that Jesus is going to return, after his resurrection he’s gonna return.

So the people, shortly after Jesus’s Ascension, thought there was gonna be a year, two years tops, ten years, and Jesus’s coming again. Well, we know that wasn’t true. Here we are 2,000 years later, 2,000 years later we’re still waiting for Jesus’s return in Glory, 2,000 years after his Ascension. And I think the continued goal is to remember that we are to live as people who follow Christ Jesus. Not wait until we’re getting close to death, but follow Jesus lovingly every day, that’s the goal, right? That’s the goal.

In the book of Maccabees, we hear that those seven brothers, what do they do? They were very ready. They’re very ready in the face of their torturers. They’re very ready to see God. They’re very faithful to God, they’re very God-fearing, and they were ready to see God when he came again in Glory. They were ready to see God because of their persecution and their torturing. So they stood there, receiving the torture, only proclaiming God and telling God they’re ready to see him again. That’s very powerful, a powerful testament to their fidelity to God.

And then in the gospel, we hear how the Sadducees didn’t believe, didn’t believe that there was such a thing as the Resurrection. They didn’t believe it. And so Jesus found himself telling the Sadducees, “Look, I’m telling you. Through the gift of baptism that you have in me, I’m promising you everlasting life. I’m promising you new life with me in the Kingdom of Paradise.” Jesus reaffirms that promise of everlasting life. He is the God of the living and God of the dead.

In this month of November, in which we typically give thanks to God for all the gifts we have, we’ve received, I think the gift that we wanna say thank-you for is the gift of mercy. In this year of mercy, in this year that we’ve been remembering God’s mercy for us, we’re also very grateful that God gifts us with his mercy. And I think the last ultimate gift of mercy is that welcome into the gates of Heaven. Isn’t that true? The last gift that God wants to give us, the last act of mercy is welcome us home into paradise. We believe that deeply. That is our faith, that is the gift of our baptism. May we live life lovingly and generously every day, so that when Christ calls us home, we find our new home in the gates of Heaven, through Jesus’s mercy.