3rd Sunday after Easter 30 Apr 2023 Sermon

 

3^rd Sunday after Easter 30 April 2023 The infinite future

 

In a little while you shall not see Me, and again a little while and you shall see Me  (Jn 16,16-22).

 

Our Lord was referring to His crucifixion as the first separation, and then His Ascension as the second time, anticipating a glorious reunion in each case.

 

For us it is still a time of separation, to be resolved individually at death, and overall at His second coming.

 

The future and the past is all one to God and so it should be to us as far as faith is concerned. We should be able to believe in future events as surely as those in the past.

 

One good thing about separations is they can increase our desire to see one whom we love. Our Lord wants us to use this present time of our lives increasing our desire for Him, longing for reunion with Him, and then eternal union.

 

He leads us on as He offers us something better, our true home.

 

In the meantime, our waiting is not just idle; we should do good in every way possible (today’s epistle 1 P 2,11-19).

 

We might think God is being cruel keeping us at such distance from Him, and not ending our exile quickly.

 

He is never cruel, just firm. Whatever He does is aimed at giving us the best possible outcome. If we learn to wait for our fulfilment in Him we will be a lot more happy overall than if we expect instant delights at every turn.

 

He will give us all the qualities we need to serve out our time of separation. All our prayer has a certain longing quality about it. The Advent prayer, Come, Lord Jesus says it all.

 

He offers Himself in sacramental form to keep us on track. There is great power in the sacraments if we let them take full effect.

 

We are generally too much absorbed int this life and not really trusting God to provide.

 

We cannot guarantee that we will always be comfortable physically, but we can ensure that we always have spiritual aid, helping us to keep everything in context.

 

We learn to keep always one eye on eternity, the long view.

 

We learn to live each moment for God, without useless worry or futile distractions.

 

We worry about many things; we have many deadlines to meet, recurring tasks to fulfil. Always there is something to claim our attention.

 

We can take all that in our stride if we are sufficiently grounded in Christ.

 

We will find the wisdom and the energy to deal with each problem as it arises.

 

We have the benefit of God's power and love at every moment. We cannot lose on that basis.

 

The future is very strange to us;  even as to this life the future is a complete blur. We have no idea what will happen even tomorrow, let alone the rest of our time on earth.

 

What happens after death is more mysterious still.

 

Not fully knowing something does not make it untrue.

 

The atheists and the agnostics ridicule Heaven and the whole spiritual world because they do not see it.

 

We trust that whatever God tells us is true, whether we understand it or not, whether we have experienced it or not. It is a joy for us waiting to find out what Heaven is like.

 

And this earth, weighed down by so much suffering as it is, can be enjoyed on the same principle, that nothing can separate us from the love of God (Rm 8,39).

 

He is testing us to see if we are capable of trusting Him to such an extent, at the same time enabling us to do so.

 

So the daily grind goes on – for now - but not forever.

 

In a little while….