Tag: <span>Heaven</span>

June 2, 2021May 27, 2021

One Bride for Seven Brothers

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

Who knew: There are two passages about seven men marrying the same wife in sequence, each dying in his turn. And they’re both found in today’s liturgy.

Love between a man and a woman is considered by many the height of happiness. In both of today’s readings, though, there is a lesson to be learned about the fleeting and unreliable nature of what humans tend to rely on for happiness. In the first reading, poor Sarah’s husbands keep dying immediately upon wedding her, and in the gospel, the Sadducees cite a hypothetical example of a woman marrying seven men in sequence.

In both readings, we see that the ultimate bringer of reliable happiness is God. In the first reading, God remedies Sarah’s plight after she moves from despair into hope and prays to Him; and in the gospel, the source of eternal happiness in the resurrection from the dead is God.

Still, we must not divorce our view of God’s Providence from the ordinary realities of life. We are body and spirit, and God cares for us lovingly in both. Sometimes we suffer, but even this suffering is curated caringly by God, for those who trust in Him.

And He often manifests His providential love in simple details in everyday life: Unexpected blessings, positive outcomes.

Perfect trust involves detachment from any particular gift or outcome, and at the same time, certainty that God will ultimately bring about the best possible outcome.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Ask Jesus to transform your life such that it is led by perfect trust. Aware that you cannot trust this way yourself, ask Him with confidence for the gift.

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April 13, 2021March 25, 2021

Treasure Here, Treasure There

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

“If I tell you about earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man.” This is what Jesus tells Nicodemus, after Nicodemus does not understand His message about being born again of the Spirit.

Most people would call Jesus’ description to Nicodemus of being born again a “heavenly thing.” Compare what He is talking about, for example, to a conversation about cooking dinner, or taking out the trash.

But Jesus calls the discussion about being born of the Spirit an “earthly thing.”

All too often, even in the Christian life, all we think about are “earthly things.” We talk about making the world a better place by feeding the poor, acting with kindness, etc., all of which is good and which indeed is part of what Christianity demands.

But none of these are “heavenly things.”

In Mt. 19, Jesus tells the rich young man, “go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.” To have “heavenly things,” the rich young man must detach himself utterly from all that he has.

The apostle Barnabas in the first reading does just that. He sells his property, and gives away his money. From an “earthly” perspective, this is insane foolishness. But Barnabas has his eyes on Heaven.

Is our heart in Heaven, or is it on earth? Do we still harbor a secret desire for earthly happiness, or do we truly seek to place all our treasure in Heaven?

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Think about what you most dream about on earth, what you most desire. Give it to Jesus, and tell Him you that you want, not that thing, but only His will. Ask Him to build your treasure in Heaven, and to free you from anything that will keep Him from doing so.

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March 15, 2021February 26, 2021

Dancing

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

When He finds it in a human heart, true, pure love is a fulcrum that God uses to shower His grace. In this sense, there is an insight in so many merely human allegories, such as the Disney movie Frozen, that emphasize pure, self-sacrificing love. This insight can be found even in some secular idealism of our time that stresses authentic concern for the welfare, even the temporal welfare, of others.

The first reading talks about God turning weeping into dancing, creating a new Jerusalem where there will be no more suffering. The reading foreshadows the eternal life that Christ wins for us on the Cross.

In the gospel, Jesus brings the message of the first reading to life, as He turns the royal official’s mourning into dancing. The official asks Jesus to come and heal his son, who is near death. Jesus accuses the man of looking for a sign, but rather than defending himself, the man ignores the accusation entirely and insists that his son be saved.

The man is focused entirely on the welfare of the object of his love, his son. He will not be distracted by questions to his motives.

Jesus does not go with the man, but assures him that his child will live. Instead of growing angry with Jesus, the man is inspired to faith in His words–and He returns home, in the spirit of that faith.

The official’s faith is rewarded with the life and health of his son. His mourning is turned into dancing.

We have every opportunity to gain a foretaste of the dancing to come in heaven here on earth, if we wish; all we need do is beg God’s Providence, full of faith, to look after our welfare in every way, and then trust Him to do so, even when the means we foresee are not those He chooses.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Ask Jesus to take over your life and do things His way. Tell Him you trust His plan to be the right one, and beg Him in His Providence to take over the direction of your life and the lives of your loved ones.

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February 18, 2021February 3, 2021

Black and White

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

It would be nice if life were not a binary, black-and-white choice. But it is.

It is a fact that all people are a mix of good and bad; therefore, it may be said, in a sense, that all people are good. Evil is the absence of good; therefore, since all people have good in them, all people are good.

But in the end, there are only life and death; there is no in-between. And it is not people who are all bad who choose death over life. Only good people make this bad choice–because all people are, at least in part, good. And unfortunately, the good people who make this bad choice are not few.

The choice offered to the Israelites in the first reading is a binary one: life, or death. Jesus draws the same line in the gospel, and fills it with color: Only those who lose their life–that is, give it away, to God and others–will save their lives.

Ours is an age where many want to blur these lines, holding that even those who ignore God and do not live life as a gift will be saved in the end. But this belief contradicts Jesus.

Many will die this day; many who have made the wrong choice. Our mission, like Jesus, is to offer our prayers and sufferings for sinners, that God may inject into them an extra, special dose of His grace so that they may discover how desirable He is and convert to Him.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Ask Jesus to stir in your heart a love for the welfare, eternal and earthly, of your brothers and sisters. Ask Him to make of you a fruitful and productive offering for souls.

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December 3, 2020November 17, 2020

Joy in the Heavenly City

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

How can our joy be complete in Heaven, when there will be many who are not saved?

When, as foreseen in the first reading, the gates are opened, and a nation that is just is let in, He simultaneously brings down the lofty city, the city of the proud and arrogant. As glory as our heavenly destiny is, how can we truly rejoice when these are lost to eternal suffering?

When contemplating the most dramatic element of the human reality, this eternal division between the just and the condemned, we must remember that the latter choose their fate. It is true that (generally speaking) they do not see Heaven and Hell set before them, and choose Hell, but they firmly choose not to undergo the radical transformation God asks of them in this life, whatever the consequences.

There is perhaps no more eloquent metaphor for this choice in the Gospel than today’s parable of the house built on sand. Those who build on sand make a choice. They may want the sand for its location and the associated ease, pleasures, gratifications, but they know it is not destined to last. “And it collapsed and was completely ruined.”

We may rejoice wholeheartedly, because we have a God who is so merciful and so humble that He chooses to respect absolutely the freedom of His creatures, who would rather suffer in the long run than accept His challenges. It is safe to say that people are not as naïve as we think; we are not as special as we sometimes think in understanding life as a grand choice. People know this. But many simply choose the broad, easy path.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: In this Advent time, contemplate the world in its darkness ahead of Jesus’ coming at Christmas. See yourself as His hope for getting an opportunity to infuse a disproportionate amount of the grace He brings at the Incarnation into others, to help them convert to Him, and give yourself to Him for this purpose. But do so serenely, understanding that it is His will to leave the final choice up to them.

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November 28, 2020November 13, 2020

Violent Transition

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

As the liturgical year ends, Scripture once again confronts us–virtually assails us–with what the end of this annual period symbolizes, that is, the end of the world and of time.

Revelation today paints a beautiful, but also powerful and striking picture. From the throne of God flows the river of life, with the tree of life on either side, bearing fruit twelve times each year.

The image is that of Christ’s Church come to full maturity in eternity. As the passage states, “Nothing accursed will be found anymore.” This is beautiful and yet “terrible,” in the sense of awe-inspiring and fearsome–for those who cling to that which is tainted will be wiped out, in a place of torment, as preceding days’ passages from Revelation have shown.

The symbol also stretches to the Christian Church here on earth, however, as an imperfect precursor to the heavenly Church. Here too, the river of life-giving water flows from the throne of God to His people through the Church. The twelvefold-fruitful tree of life, symbolizing the Church founded firmly on the twelve apostles, provides life through its sacraments–sustenance through its fruit, and medicine through its leaves–until we come to take part in the fully transformed, heavenly Church.

The transformation process in the end times, to reach this beautiful state, will be produced through great travail, like the birth of a beautiful baby. In the Gospel passage today, Jesus says that that last days arrival will “assault everyone who lives on the face of the earth.”

The earth, for all its human conflicts, lives for now in an uneasy peace with God. That will not always be the case. The current compromised state of humankind and of our broken world will come to an end, and we will be wise to be ready through a vigilant and wakeful commitment to the teachings of Jesus.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Ask Jesus to give you the courage to live with the fragile transience of the world always in mind, without, however, ever despairing or growing impatient. Ask Him for unfailing, vibrant hope in His victory, which will bring grandeur and beauty like you have never seen. Ask Him also for the gift of trusting that He will keep you in His grace if you persistently ask Him to.

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November 24, 2020November 10, 2020

The Grapes of Wrath

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

Video games today are characterized by photorealism. Travel is quick and relatively painless. As for smart phones: One finds pictures on the Internet of all the things that used to require their own device, and now fit on that device in your pocket: Radios and CD players, cameras, DVD players, TVs, calculators, flash lights, etc.

We may truly marvel at these things and think that humanity has really arrived.

So it was for the Jews of Jesus’ day who felt like their nation had really arrived, as they contemplated the rich, beautiful adornments of the temple. But Jesus warned them that of that temple, stone would not be left upon stone.

Such admonitions could cause us to wonder: When will the next shoe drop? Dystopian post-apocalyptic stories are popular today, partly because there is a latent fear in many of our disproportionate reliance on our ultra-sophisticated technological advances.

But Jesus assures us that while, yes, conflicts will arise and bad things will happen, we need not fear total collapse until the true end–the time appointed by God.

Today’s first reading foretells what will occur when that end comes. It talks about the son of man reaping earth’s harvest with a sharp sickle, and an angel reaping the ripe grapes from the earth. This actually sounds somewhat positive until, in the last line, we learn that these grapes are cast into the winepress of God’s fury!

It is important to work for justice on the earth, to ensure that our systems of government are not oppressive, and even to strive for technological advances that can make people’s lives easier. Imagine, for example, an invention that ensured provision of fresh water to every human on the planet.

But we need not expect the earth to turn into a utopia, a near-ideal place to live, as the result of efforts for justice. Scripture is clear that the world has rebelled against God, and its state of rebellion will endure. At the end of time, the fruits the world produces as a whole will not be pleasing to God. And so, while striving for justice on this earth, we must above all strive to help others convert to Christ for the sake of their eternal welfare, after their earthly life.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Think about where your hopes lie. Do you hope in some way for an earthly utopia? Maybe you’ll finally find paradise on your next vacation… Maybe in retirement… Ask Jesus to help you understand if your earthly hopes for happiness are unrealistic and perhaps unbalanced, and to help you place your hope in His destiny for you in eternity.

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November 23, 2020November 9, 2020

Lifeboat

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

In the first reading from Revelation, John describes those in Heaven as numbering one hundred and forty-four thousand. Whether or not that is the exact number to be saved, the fact that he cites a concrete number can make us pause and reflect: When all is said and done, the number of the saved will be a concrete number. Maybe it will be 127,239,151. Whatever it will be, it will be concrete, never to be changed–the most important number in the history of humanity. And we have the power to influence this number, to augment it, simply through our prayer, sacrifice, and daily self-offering to the Lord for others. And our works of evangelization and works of charity.

John uses a curious word when he talks about those who have followed the Lamb, and who are present in heaven: They have been “ransomed from the world.” This conjures an image of a world that holds prisoners captive, from which they must be rescued.

And so it is. The world holds so many captive with its shackles of pride, lust for power, greed, longing for sensual pleasures and comfort. Every day we decide anew to step onto the lifeboat of grace with which Jesus rescues us from these shackles. And every day we have the opportunity to help others onto that lifeboat.

Jesus marvels in today’s gospel at the woman who gives everything that she has, in contrast to those who give their surplus. She defies the captivity of the world and its allurements, making her life instead into a gift. Gift of self to God each day in prayer, gift of self to God each day in service to others–making a gift of our lives is the way not only to step onto the lifeboat ourselves, but to bring others aboard as well, and swell the numbers of those saved. 706 were saved from the sinking of the Titanic–once you have lived your life as a gift, how many will be added to the one important human number that will last forever: the number of those who have attained Heaven for eternity?

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Only God knows the number of those who will inhabit Heaven for eternity–but it is a concrete number, one which will be smaller or larger, depending on the way we live our lives. Ask Jesus His ideal for your life. How does He call you and hope for you to help Him “draw all people to Himself” (cf. Jn. 12:32)?

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November 15, 2020October 29, 2020

Talented

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

In today’s second reading, St. Paul cautions us that the day of our accounting before the Lord will come unexpectedly, like a thief in the night. The children of the night, of darkness, will be caught unprepared, asleep; the children of light, of the day, by contrast, will be ready.

Jesus talks about that day of reckoning in the gospel. It can be perhaps a bit frightening to realize that it will not be enough merely to have avoided sin to enter the Kingdom of God. We actually have to produce something through the investment of our talents. Having produced is what readiness for the Lord’s coming means.

So, what does fruitfulness mean? The word talent is used: Do we need to develop our talents for athletics, music, art, learning, etc. to the maximum in view of that day? Many do this, but are not on the path to which Jesus refers.

Let’s look at the ideal disciple of Jesus, the Virgin Mary. How did she embody today’s gospel? She did not focus on the development of all her human potential in terms of skill development. She simply looked to give herself fully to the will of God: “I am the handmaid of the Lord.” She was conscious of the exalted nature of her mission, but most of her activities and days were quite ordinary.

What are the talents to which Jesus refers? The greatest gifts we have are the faculties of our soul, our intelligence and will. These come in different shapes and sizes, just like the different numbers of talents in the gospel. But whatever our inventory, this is what we are called to give to God and to His will every day, by which they are sure to bear fruit. We are to give Him our freedom wholeheartedly with our will. We are to give our intellect to His truth. If we do this, it does not matter how spectacular our activities or achievements in the world’s view. Also, it doesn’t matter if we die with our “talents” (potential for developing skills) not fully tapped in this or that area. God will bring fruit for souls, as He did with the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Thus it is that in the first reading, the value of a virtuous wife is extolled. It’s not about whether she sits home weaving flax or succeeds as a Fortune 500 CEO. Either of these is of equal value if she undertakes it in virtuous, loving obedience to God’s will. And the same goes for husbands, for men.

“Seek first the kingdom [of God] and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides.” (Mt. 6:33)

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Reflect on the most mundane activities in your life, as well as the most stimulating and interesting stuff of your dreams. Place them at the feet of Jesus and ask Him the value He places on each. Ask Him to help you dwell in His Heart and His will through your daily gift of self renewed in your moments of contemplative prayer, so that your gift of self opens the door for Him to bear the fruit He wants in so many souls.

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November 13, 2020October 28, 2020

Separation

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

Jesus does this a lot, and it is annoying to our refined worldly sensibilities. He preaches on a separation at the end of time/end of our lives in stark contrast to the amalgamation/non-separation of people here on earth. This amalgamation will persist until the very last day, as in the days of Noah: “They were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage up to the day that Noah entered the ark.”

But the annoying part is that the separation is coming, and Jesus just won’t stop talking about it.

Perhaps if we were gods, we would do things differently. Perhaps we would set things up such that things persist just as they are right into eternity. Perhaps we would make it such that, to avoid the radical result of condemnation of many, the few who radically choose Jesus would be deprived of the monumental transformation and exaltation that comes with the reward of the beatific vision in eternity.

But we are not gods. We must trust and obey. And pray and sacrifice ceaselessly for the eternal happiness of our fellow humans, attained through conversion. In the way God has in fact set things up, we may glimpse how worthwhile and different eternal happiness is from happiness, even spiritual happiness, here on earth–that God would sacrifice so much that we may attain it.

In the first reading, St. John reminds us that we don’t need to be particularly clever or invent anything new to make the choice for Christ and follow Him. We need only persevere in fulfilling His Commandment of love (cf. Mt. 22:37-40). “If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.” (Jn. 15:10)

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Contemplate eternity. Imagine, as best you can, heaven and hell. Drink in the mystery that there is in fact a separation in the end, and some will go to heaven, and others, hell. Be open with Jesus: Ask Him why He set things up this way. And ask Him for the grace to be effective not only in reaching heaven, but especially in assisting others in choosing this path.

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