From today’s Psalm 56 the response is – “ I will walk in the presence of God, in the light of the living”.
If we look at the Book of Genesis that is exactly what Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:8). God was walking with them because He wanted a relationship with Adam and Eve. God wants that relationship with you and me right now.But a great many things happened to get in the way. Adam fell. We had a promise of a Savior. We had a Savior and we crucified Him and killed Him and he rose from the dead. He ascended into heaven. Now we have a promise of rising with Jesus when we die.
In the first reading from Saint Paul, the Corinthians had a reasonable question. “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come back?”
These Corinthians were believers but focused on the future and not in the present. They also having trouble reconciling their old customs with a lifestyle with God at the center. With inquisitive minds they were more worried about what it would be like in heaven and what they would look like than what they had to do to get there. Paul answers them by saying that while we have the earthly bodies of Adam made in God’s image and when we die we will have the heavenly body made in that image.
I am in ways like the new believers that the Corinthians were. I am a dreamer. How many times in my life have I lived in the future and not the present and said what if and if only I had this or that how great it would be. “I will have no worries if I could only win the lotto.” When I was a teenager I would say “What if that girl, that I find attractive would only go out on a date with me?” When I was in middle age, I would say, “When I retire, that will be the life, then I will have no worries”. Why do we always dream of the future and not live in the present?
In the Garden Adam and Eve had no worries. They had a relationship with God. God went looking for them to continue that relationship, but with the help of the devil they destroyed their relationship by eating the fruit of the tree that God told them not to eat. Every time I sin I destroy that relationship anew. Thank God, repentance and reconciliation is never far away in the sacrament of Reconciliation.
Luke’s Gospel shows us how we can cultivate the future and that relationship by living in the light of the present when Jesus says;
“But for the seed that fell on rich soil, they are the ones who, when they have heard the word, embrace it with a generous and good heart, and bear fruit through perseverance”
In the northern hemisphere we are fast approaching the Fall of the year which is next week. The seeds were planted earlier and we are looking at the fruit of that planting. This is harvest time is beautiful with all its rich colors and smells. We will soon have cooler nights and days in the process of getting ready for winter. If we cultivated our soil, we should be walking with God now and because we have done so with a good heart and because we have done this daily we have no reason to worry about whether we are being fruitful and certainly not what we will look like in heaven. Our relationship with God is now, don’t miss the opportunity to be fruitful now. The Devil wants us to put off that relationship by letting the worries of the day and what we will look like with heavenly body. Don’t let me tell you that there are no thorns or rocks along the way. There are plenty and there will be other challenges in the future. Our partner, God is always open and never far away.
You have the answer – Walking with God ! Be fruitful ! Don’t wait ! Our merciful God is searching for us now and wants to continue His relationship with us in the light of the world.
God Bless
Bob Burford
Readings: 1 Corinthians 15: 35-37; 42-49; Psalm 56: 10C-12; 13-14; Luke 8:4-15
