We live in the presence of God

A Reflection for Saturday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

Find today’s readings here.

I spend a fair bit of time thinking about life beyond this one. What will those heavenly reunions be like? How will my departed loved ones and I be transformed? Which parts of ourselves will remain the same? Which will we be different?

In today’s reading from Paul’s letters to the Corinthians, I get a bit of insight to my questions. “And what you sow is not the body that is to be but a bare kernel of wheat, perhaps, or of some other kind.” Like the kernel of wheat, our earthly form is just the start—the very seedling—of who we are meant to be and what we are to become. The promise He makes—that we will be raised “incorruptible,” “glorious” and “powerful”—offers an extraordinary glimpse into what awaits. I can only imagine what it will be to see the people I love so much in all their heavenly glory, their extraordinary wholeness fulfilled.

With that future ahead of us, I wonder: How do we prepare? How do we make ourselves worthy? How do we open ourselves up to becoming all that we are meant to be on earth and all we are destined to be in heaven?

Interestingly, today’s responsorial psalm seems to provide an answer. “I will walk in the presence of God, in the light of the living.” We live here on earth, and we will live in heaven; in both places, we will be in the presence of God. So perhaps our invitation is to live fully wherever we are, knowing we are accompanied in the light—in this world and in the world to come.