With Fr Paul Gooley on Annual Leave, Tony Worner, Leader of Formation for St Agnes’ Parish presents our Gospel reflections this week and today reads from the Gospel of Mark (12: 18-27) in which the Sadducees try to trick Jesus with their questioning.

Tony says, if we’re not careful, we can get too caught up in the various relationships the Sadducees were citing in the text to try and challenge Jesus’ teaching.   The resurrection is not an easy doctrine to get our head around, it is not easy to understand, because it is nothing like we can imagine, yet it is at the very heart of our faith.  God desires that we live with him forever. The Sadducees in Jesus’ time didn’t believe in the resurrection of the dead. And you may have noticed that Jesus didn’t answer them directly, but instead went to the heart of the matter: their lack of faith. Jesus clarifies with them that God is a “God not of the dead, but of the living”.

Tony asks, what does this mean for us? What does it mean to have God in our life now? That God is with me now! for us. What is it in our hearts that is preventing us from seeing God, now? What is stopping us from believing in eternal life?

In closing Tony invites us to pray:  Lord, may we know you so that we may experience eternal life and love in our present circumstances. Help us not to set our heart on what is temporary and passing but on the love of God.