Saint Charles Lwanga and Companions, Martyrs

As for the dead being raised, have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God told him, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not God of the dead but of the living.

God is the Heavenly King of the living, not the dead. And who are the living? Those who do God’s will, just as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob did in their righteous lives. The dead are those who choose the spiritual death of sin over the spiritual life of obedience to God’s commandments to love Him and our brothers and sisters with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strengths. The living are the loving disciples of Jesus Christ. They bear the image of God within them and though they might stumble and fall along the way they continually seek the forgiveness of their Father through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and are healed of the wounds of their sins and imperfections.

Have we done all that we can do to know, love, and serve God and His children? How do we prepare ourselves for the final judgment? How do we keep the thought of resurrection in our minds during the day?

O Lord, you are the God of the living, not the dead. Help us to live in you, forever and ever.

Amen.