THE First Reading of last Sunday’s Mass from the Book of Wisdom still echoes in my mind.
“For you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made; for what you hated, you would not have fashioned. And how could a thing remain, unless you willed it; or be preserved, had it not been called for you? But you spare all things, because they are yours, O Lord, lover of souls…”
These verses speak of God’s love for every soul, for every person in this world. As Jesus says in the Gospel, he will never reject anyone who who comes to him.
Someone so BIG as God does not only want to save us but to have a relationship with us, not just a temporal or earthly relationship but a heavenly and eternal relationship. And we know why. It’s because God is so in love with humanity and the whole world. We are his work of art, so precious in his eyes.
Last week, Los Angeles Times wrote a story about a recluse German man who hid paintings by Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Henri Matisse and Paul Klee among 1,500 works of art crammed amid piles of canned food, which are estimated to be worth $1.3 billion or more. He hid these marvelous works of art for more than 70 years since World War II.
Our God does not act this way. He celebrates the beauty of his creation and nurtures a long lasting relationship with it. No matter what strong typhoon or earthquake comes, his love for each of us remains permanent. We need submit ourselves to this mystery of his love.
What is so awesome is that he promises each one of us life beyond this world where there is no pain or tears or any suffering. We’re not just destined to this ephemeral life on earth. We’re destined to something greater than any pleasure or happiness in this world, to something more splendid than an intimate and fulfilling marriage or friendship.
In the Gospel this Sunday, the Sadducees who deny that there is no resurrection confronted Jesus about a woman who married seven brothers, after each of the brother died leaving her childless. “Now at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be?” they asked. Jesus answered, “The children of this age marry and remarry; but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming of age and to the resurrection of the dead neither marry or are given in marriage. They no longer die for they are like angels; and they are children of God because they are the ones who will rise.”
Despite this promise of God we may have lingering discomfort with death.
We want to hold on to this early life as long as we can. Ultimately, we must embrace death with great hope that we will be crossing to another world where no one suffers and dies anymore.
May the Good Lord bring us peace and make our eyes fixed on his promise of eternal life!
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Reverend Rodel G. Balagtas attended St. John Seminary in Camarillo, California and earned his Doctor of Ministry in Preaching from Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, Missouri. For twenty years, he has been in the parish ministry of large multi-cultural communities. Since 2002, he has been the pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Los Angeles. Please email Fr. Rodel at [email protected].