This week Jesus is challenged by the Sadducees, who did not believe in eternal life, so they were “sad, you see!” You see, if we don’t believe in God, if we don’t believe in His message, if we don’t believe in the Resurrection, if we are not living out our discipleship in a day in/day out fashion we can really be nothing else but, well, sad; whether we know it or believe it or not. Doing what God wants us to do is how we find peace. Disciples will give priority to those tasks which are of God and will proceed to do those things in a resolutely determined way. In doing so, he/she will experience a sense of accomplishment and peace because he/she will discover that the things that are supposed to be getting done are getting done. All these things, the poor Sadducees were not doing. Their goal was not the cross, they did not believe in Jesus, they did not believe in the Resurrection, and they were not faithful to the moment in which they found themselves. Here they were in the presence of Christ and what did they do? They asked a stupid, inane question. Now of course none of us would ever do that, right? None of us would ever come into Church and have a question or a concern that has nothing to do with our path to the Cross, now would we? But in any event, we always should give our questions and concerns that test. Are they keeping us on the path, or are they taking us off? And we should make sure that our questions, comments and remarks do not cause others in any way to veer off their paths. We all should be helping each other to live in a way that keeps us focused on our path to Jesus and we should not allow anyone else to pull us off our paths either. No one can rob us of our peace unless we let them do so. Do not let the small stuff hinder us, and remember like the book says, it is almost all small stuff. If we let the small silly stuff get us off track, then we are going to hear the same answer that Jesus gave to the poor Sadducees. They were trying to trap Him, they were trying to get Him off His path, but one of their many problems was that their agenda was different than His. Jesus says to them, “God is a God of the living and not of the dead.” In other words, “If you are not in moving towards me, you are not really living. If you want to live, then come and follow Me down the path.” He is saying that for us to be truly alive we need to be disciples of Him who follow Him to the Cross. Remember, the path to the Cross is the path to life. When we step off that path we are not living. So, let’s stay on the path and let’s not be a “Sad You See.”
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