This weekend’s Gospel invites us to think about life after death and the resurrection. We talk about the resurrection around Easter, but this weekend we are asked to look at it through the eyes of a widow. Just for a moment, put yourself in the widow’s shoes of what the Sadducees are hypothetically proposing. Given the cultural context of that time, I can only image the burdens, shame, and guilt that she must have been carrying. The grief of so many deaths she endured, but survived, let alone the expectations of her. Are we that much different than the widow? I can relate to that widow this week on so many levels. How do you think the widow would have felt hearing Jesus, knowing God’s unconditional love, and being free of all her burdens? This is exactly what I have focused on this week for nothing is impossible with God. Let us focus on what God needs to make new in us and let us feel His loving embrace as we endure the burdens we carry. May we be renewed and given hope from the last line of the Gospel, “he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”