In today’s gospel, the Sadducees are testing Jesus by presenting a reductio ad absurdum argument based on levirate marriage. A woman is successively married to seven brothers. They ask: “At the resurrection when they arise whose wife will she be” – which is interesting since the Sadducees don’t believe in the Resurrection. Jesus responds with “When they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but they are like the angels in heaven.”

Most Christians recognize that it was not really a question and since levirate marriage is not practiced in modern life, that problem is no problem at all… but there is modern fallout with a question often framed as: “If there is no marriage in heaven, does that mean I am not married, won’t love my spouse, may not even know my spouse… what about my family?”

The Sadducees’ question assumes that the resurrection is simply a continuation of earthly life under the same social arrangements. Our modern concern is whether any aspect of these important earthly social arrangements persists into the life to come. But notice Jesus does not say that people cease to know one another or to love one another. He does not say that earthly relationships become meaningless or that spouses become strangers. However, He does seem to say that marriage as an institution in the way that we know it does not continue in the resurrection.

In Scripture, marriage has several purposes: mutual love and companionship, the procreation and raising of children, as a sign of God’s covenant with humanity, and as a sacramental image of Christ and the Church. Theologians offer that marriage is like a sacrament pointing beyond itself. Just as we do not need a road sign after arriving at the destination, the sacramental sign gives way to the reality toward which it points. Mutual love is perfected, life is eternal, death is no more, and the covenant is fulfilled, In the resurrection, the purposes of marriage have reached their fulfillment.

The key point is that in eternal life relationships are transformed by perfect union with God. John Chrysostom argued that relationships are purified and elevated in the resurrection. The love spouses shared is not lost but perfected. One could easily extend Chrysostom’s argument to include family ties. Augustine of Hippo taught that personal identity remains and what passes away is not love but the juridical bond of marriage. Thomas Aquinas taught that the sacrament of marriage belongs to this life. Its function ceases in heaven because its purpose has been fulfilled. Yet the love formed through marriage remains.

So will I see my spouse in heaven? From a Catholic perspective, the answer is emphatically yes, assuming both are united with God. The deeper question is: What kind of relationship will that be? The Church’s tradition consistently says that you will not love your spouse less; you will love your spouse more perfectly than ever before. All the selfishness, misunderstandings, possessiveness, fears, wounds, and limitations that affected earthly love will be gone. The love remains.

Heaven does not erase human love; it brings it to its fullest perfection.

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Image credit: iStock 2214229139 | seb-ra | downloaded 6-1-2026 | standard iStock license