In answer to a challenge from the Sadducees, Jesus speaks of the children of God found worthy to attain to the coming age and the resurrection of the dead “…for they are like angels.”
Was Jesus saying we will become angels when we die? Many people think so.
But in fact this is not what Jesus said. The entire exchange with the Sadducees takes place within the context of the meaning of the Sacrament of Matrimony.
Man was created to be in perfect communion with God. We needed no sacraments in the Garden of Eden for we saw God face to face and were completely united to His grace. For the same reason we will not need the sacraments in the coming age and the resurrection of the dead. The love shared between two individuals will be more fully realized, but there will no longer be a need for the sacrament of Matrimony. In that sense we will be like the angels in heaven.
But we live in a fallen world. God ordered the sacraments as a means of conveying grace to us. Each of the sacraments brings us closer to God and closer to the union we were always meant to share. As a source of grace, the sacraments help us to follow the Lord, even in the face of opposition.
Romano Guardini, a Catholic priest whose philosophy influenced Pope Bendect XVI and Francis I, stated that, “Those who aspire to a life of beauty, must in the first place, strive to be truthful and good.” The life of an artist of any genre is all about showing Gods beauty to the world. Faithful reception of the sacraments, a source of God’s grace, is how we can pursue a life of truth and goodness.
As followers of Christ we are constantly under attack. The Adversary takes every opportunity to separate us from God and hold our beliefs and our work up to ridicule. If we accept this then our lives and our work begin to lose its connection to truth and goodness. If we lose that then we lose our sense of the holiness of beauty and we lose our sense of need for the sacraments. When that happens we given up a little more ground to the enemy.
Pax vobiscum
32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time