In this week's Gospel, in the Catholic Tradition, Luke uses a neat bit of literary device to allow Jesus to make a point. We talk about Jesus using parables but in this case the Scripture passage itself is a great parable. The Sadducees are trying to trick Jesus into making a statement about whose wife a woman would be after she dies, having had a sequence of husbands. Instead of answering their question, he uses the opportunity to make it clear that the rules are very different in Eternity as he says that there are no marriages in that existence and that, indeed, people do not even die there. But, better yet - in my opinion - he goes on to say that "Now he is God, not of the dead, but of the living; for to him everyone is alive." (Lk 20:38)

A God of the living? Now, that bears some examination and thought.

I am 62 years old now and, hopefully, wiser than I was when I was growing up and being taught by my Catholic educators. But, as I look back, I seem to have been told over and over that our God was the Landlord of Heaven and that our time in this life was merely a trial period to qualify us for a leased space in God's Eternity. It made me feel that my life was intended to fulfill a series of conditions set forth by God-the-Landlord. I certainly was not given a suggestion that my life might be important for its own sake. It was as though God had only a slight presence here on earth because temporal life just wasn't anything more than a passage. I got the impression that our God was a God of Eternity - primarily if not exclusively.

And now I read that my God is a God of the living, not of the dead. All of a sudden my long-cherished concept of being created in the image and likeness of God is given a new life! The God who created me actually put me here to live a temporal life. I have no doubt about the eternal life and God's role in it, but now I seem to have a present or temporal life that is just as sacred and just as important. It is enough to make me look at what I am doing today and what I did yesterday in a spotlight that shines very brightly. What I am doing and why I am doing it matters for its sake and is not just a series of steps toward a higher goal. I helped a friend paint his house this morning and it was a very important act because it makes my life today fuller and because it added to his life as well. We enhanced both of our lives with a can of paint! This ought to have been obvious all along but it wasn't; not until I read that my God is a God of the living. Painting was not an investment intended to yield future gains like some kind of spiritual 401(k). Painting was a very good thing today for now because I walked with God as I brushed. The entire morning was important for its own sake in my life.

Oh, my poor Roman Catholic Church! Why can't you see how simple it all is? We don't need theologians and Canon lawyers to build a huge structure around God-be-with-us. He simply is and I simply am. I move in God's world today.