Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
As the liturgical year comes to a close and we prepare to celebrate Christ the King, today’s scripture provides some thoughts for reflection. Jesus reminds us that eternal life is something that is difficult for us to imagine. Resurrection is real because our God is a God of the living, but Jesus encourages us to live right now as children of God’s kingdom by realizing that our worth comes from God’s abundant love.
In today’s gospel reading, the Sadducees attempt to catch Jesus off guard by asking Jesus about the resurrection from the dead. The Sadducees do not believe in resurrection, so they create a story about a woman who is married and loses her husband. The story then continues with seven brothers marrying this woman and all passing away without having any children. They ask Jesus whose wife will this be at the resurrection. The Sadducees are focused on the idea of inheritance and earthly goods. Jesus crafts an answer that explains the resurrection of the dead to be something beyond one’s understanding. In the “coming age” people will not marry, and they can no longer die. The “children of God” are the ones who will rise for they are like angels. It is difficult to imagine what this means, since our minds are limited by space and time. Jesus promises that God is a God of the living, and to Him “all are alive.” All of the people that have gone before us and those people who are yet to come are alive in God. This should be a source of great hope and peace as we recognize our birth, our existence on this earth, and our death all have their life in God.
Jesus says that those “worthy” will be the ones to attain the coming age. How do we find our worth in our earthly existence? It is easy for us to focus on finding our worth through the things of this world- our successes, our talents, our blessings. But Jesus reminds us that we are worthy because we are “children of God”. St. Teresa of Avila says it well: “It is love alone that gives worth to all things.” The love of God is the source of our worthiness. There is nothing that we can do to earn this love- it is freely and abundantly given to us.
When we recognize and believe in God’s great love for us, we are able to place our lives into God’s hands and abandon our goals for God’s goals for us. Through our surrender to God’s love, our thoughts, words and deeds become imitations of Jesus because He is the perfect human example of God’s love lived on this earth. God’s love does not expect or demand perfection, since God knows that we will stumble and fall. The good news about our worth is that God is always ready to bring us back to God’s embrace even when we turn away to find our worth in the things of this world.
We do not need to wait until the day of our resurrection to find our worth in God’s love. Jesus invites us to the kingdom of God right now, and He tells us, “The Kingdom of God is in your midst.” (Luke 17:21) All of the material possessions that surround us will pass away, but the love of God will last forever. Jesus reminds us to look within to find the love of God that is the foundation of the kingdom. We are then sent forth as His disciples to build the kingdom by sharing God’s abundant love with others.
As we come to the end of the liturgical year and focus on the Kingdom of God, Jesus reminds us that God is a God of the living, and God’s love will never end. Death is not an end, but a continuation of God’s kingdom in a manner that goes beyond our thoughts and imagination. We are worthy of the kingdom because of the abundant love of God, and we can share in building up the kingdom by sharing this love with the world.
Loving Father, Jesus shows us how to build the kingdom through love. Through the grace of Your Spirit, help us to recognize our worth through Your love for us. Inspired by Jesus, help us to share this love with others, so all may be children in the Kingdom of God. We pray this through Christ our LORD. Amen.
Marylynn Herchline