Sunday after Ascension 28.5.17 Heaven
We have just celebrated the Feast of the Ascension. At the
Ascension Our Lord leaves us, and we might grieve about that. But on a little
reflection we see that He has to go to His proper place, which is Heaven.
Heaven is also our proper place (in God’s plan), and Our
Lord is paving the way there for us. He goes to prepare us a place (Jn 14,3).
Heaven can wait Curiously for such a good place we do
not necessarily want to hurry there. It is best to leave the timing to God. We
are with Him here or there, and that is the main thing. He will call us when
the time is right.
The credibility of Heaven. It is hard for us to
visualise Heaven. We have not seen it; and we find we do not have the
vocabulary or the concepts to understand it.
It is no less real for that. The reality of something does
not depend on our ability to understand or explain it (eg the intricacies of
weather, or flight, or outer space).
Some will refuse to believe for just this reason - that they
cannot understand it, or have not experienced it. But that is to try to fit the
ocean into a bucket. Finite beings must give way to Infinity.
(It is not hard, at least, to imagine a place better than
earth!)
The beauty of Heaven. Heaven is often caricatured as people
sitting on clouds and playing harps. Or in films, it is portrayed as a slow-motion
sort of place, with a ghostly atmosphere – a place with less life and vitality
than here on earth. In fact Heaven is far more alive than earth. Sin and death
have no place there. There is nothing to impede the flow of life.
Even this earth, with all its sin, still staggers us with
its beauty. Yet we are just one planet in a universe with billions of stars. Do
we doubt that God, who made all this, can come up with something better than we
have seen so far?
The happiness of Heaven is also oversimplified when
understood as merely the continuation of the same pleasures we had on earth. The
happiness of Heaven far exceeds that of earth.
The greatest happiness of Heaven is union with God. The
Creator must be greater than the things He has created. If we enjoy those
things we will enjoy Him even more.
In Heaven we shall see Him face to face. We will perceive
Him directly, though still not penetrating all the mysteries.
It will be like being thirsty all the time, but able to
relieve that thirst at the same time.
Appetite and satisfaction will always be at their fullest.
What do we do in the meantime
For now we must pursue our everyday lives, just doing our duty, as well as we
can, with as little complaint as we can manage. We find God amidst this life,
through prayer and sacraments, and we see His handiwork among us.
St Paul tells us we are already in Heaven with Christ, and our
thoughts should be on Heavenly things (Col 3,1-4). We have to reprogramme our
minds to be less attached to things of this earth.
We live by Heavenly thoughts, applying what we learn from
them to this earthly life.
We have the Heavenly currency, called ‘grace’, to enable us
to live earthly life in a Heavenly way – for example, being charitable,
patient, forgiving - instead of the opposites.
May the Lord bring us all safely to that place, which is our
true home (Ph,3,20).
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