Do you ever worry about heaven?
We tend not to want to think about the mystery of what will
happen to us at the moment of our death or thereafter. And in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus does not try to
make the disciples feel good about the end times: he makes reference to the earthquakes, famine
and plagues, not to mention the betrayal and persecution, that are to
come. But his ultimate message is
reassuring: Not a hair on your head will be destroyed; by your perseverance you
will secure your lives. Surrender to
the love of God that is your confidence, he is saying; stand face to face with
the mystery you do not understand, open yourself to it, and allow faith to
deepen your appreciation of that mystery.
Embrace the change that is to come, and be thereby drawn more deeply
into a new reality that will last forever, even if it seems you must pass
through disorder, and fire, to get there.
For as Psalm 98 reassures us, The Lord comes to rule the earth with justice, that same justice
that the prophet Malachi refers to when he speaks of the sun of
justice with its healing rays, rays that will heal and purify those who
have been faithful to covenant, unlike all
the proud and all the evildoers who will be set ablaze, leaving them neither root nor branch. This is the Lord’s rule, a rule of equity and justice that calls for praise.
But so long as we are on this earth, we must contribute to that equity
as best we can. Even in Paul’s time,
when many believed the end times were imminent, the Thessalonians are told to
be mindful of their responsibility toward others. Rather than be unwilling to
take on their fair share of the toil and
drudgery, thereby sowing disorder, Paul encourages all to follow the model
of the disciples, fostering equity through shared responsibility and care of
others as they wait for the fulfillment of the mystery that is to come.
All of us need to be purified, purified of our brokenness,
purified of our disorderly ways, so that we can open ourselves to faith in the
mystery that saves, the mystery of perfect union that we can know only after
death. Before the end times, though, only
the sun of justice with its healing rays can eradicate all
disorder by the love of God that sows confidence and strength.
This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class
Image source: Wordle
Image source: Wordle
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