Being Faithful to Each Other

Gospel: Luke 20: 27-40

Today's reading shows how unimportant questions can lead to very important lessons being taught to us about the real purpose of religion.  The Sadducees think their question is important but it is not.  What does it really matter who is considered this woman's husband after death? Every brother cared for her as he ought and are rewarded for this care.

But the real lesson Jesus teaches through this encounter is the vast difference between the kingdom of God and our kingdoms here on earth.  Here on earth the woman needed to marry all these times because she was not regarded as a citizen in her own right but only through connection by law to a man.  She was a vulnerable person because human law made her so.  But in God's kingdom everyone is a citizen in their own right, everyone protected, cared for, and loved.  In God's kingdom no injustice or inequality exist.  

We might think that the contrast Jesus provides between God's kingdom and our own would lead us to create a world more like God's kingdom.  A brief scan about the world shows we still are plagued with the unimportant questions of religion - the denominational wars, the liturgy wars - to the neglect of the more important questions of caring for others, for living lives of love and mercy.  May today be the day we set aside the unimportant for the sake of the important, today is the day we care for others always.