I have been quite unwell in recent weeks. When I was really sick it often brought to mind that my earthly days were numbered and it was useful to think about what I should be doing for the rest of my days. I had some spiritual guidance from Father Joseph last week, a Nigerian priest who is now a missionary to Canada - talk about the reverse of the missionary movement - praise God!
By God’s wonderful providence, my reading from the Liturgy of the Hours this morning includes the passage from 2 Peter 1:12-21 and it goes like this:
“Therefore I intend to keep on reminding you of these things, though you know them already and are established in the truth that has come to you. I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to refresh your memory, since I know that my death will come soon, as indeed our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.
For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain.
So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”
Verses 13-15 are more accurately translated this way: ”I am sure it is my duty, as long as I am in this tent, to keep stirring you up with reminders, since I know the time for taking off this tent is coming soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ foretold to me. And I shall take great care that after my own departure you will still have a means to recall these things to memory.”
I then read this cmmentary from St. Augustine which is about this passage. It’s worth quoting it here since I will have a hard time finding it later. It has the title:
A treatise of St Augustine on St John's gospel - You will come to the spring and see light itself
We Christians are the light, at least by comparison with unbelievers. Thus the Apostle says: Once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk then as sons of the light. And elsewhere he says: The night is far spent, the day is drawing near. Let us therefore lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armour of light; let us walk uprightly as in the day.
Nevertheless, since the days in which we are now living are still dark compared to the light which we shall see, hear what the apostle Peter says. He speaks of a voice that came from the Supreme Glory and said to the Lord Jesus Christ: You are my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. This voice, he says, we heard coming from heaven, when we were with him on the holy mountain. Because we ourselves were not present there and did not hear that voice from heaven, Peter says to us: And we possess a more certain prophetic word to which you do well to attend, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.
When, therefore, our Lord Jesus Christ comes and, as the apostle Paul says, brings to light things hidden in darkness and makes plain the secrets of the heart, so that everyone may receive his commendation from God, then lamps will no longer be needed. When that day is at hand, the prophet will not be read to us, the book of the Apostle will not be opened, we shall not require the testimony of John, we shall have no need of the Gospel itself. Therefore all Scriptures will be taken away from us, those Scriptures which in the night of this world burned like lamps so that we might not remain in darkness.
When all these things are removed as no longer necessary for our illumination, and when the men of God by whom they were ministered to us shall themselves together with us behold the true and dear light without such aids, what shall we see? With what shall our minds be nourished? What will give joy to our gaze? Where will that gladness come from, which eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, which has not even been conceived by the heart of man? What shall we see?
I implore you to love with me and, by believing, to run with me; let us long for our heavenly country, let us sigh for our heavenly home, let us truly feel that here we are strangers. What shall we then see? Let the gospel tell us: In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. You will come to the fountain, with whose dew you have already been sprinkled. Instead of the ray of light which was sent through slanting and winding ways into the heart of your darkness, you will see the light itself in all its purity and brightness. It is to see and experience this light that you are now being cleansed. Dearly beloved, John himself says, we are the sons of God, and it has not yet been disclosed what we shall be; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
I feel that your spirits are being raised up with mine to the heavens above; but the body which is corruptible weighs down the soul, and this earthly tent burdens the thoughtful mind. I am about to lay aside this book, and you are soon going away, each to his own business. It has been good for us to share the common light, good to have enjoyed ourselves, good to have been glad together. When we part from one another, let us not depart from him.
Just what I need to hear today!!
Tuesday 27 November 2018
Friday 16 November 2018
The Coming of the Kingdom of God; the Days of Noah and the Days of Lot
This blog is shorter (as in spending little time on) still. This brain concussion has limited my screen time. So I resolved to reading commentaries! What a new concept. But in order to translate what I read to the blog screen I had to dictate into my iPhone which did the voice to text translation - with plenty of mistakes of course!
Today's scripture passage is a familiar one which I never managed to quite understand. It's taken from Luke 17:20-37: The Coming of the Kingdom of God
"Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.”
Then he said to his disciples, “The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it. People will tell you, ‘There he is!’ or ‘Here he is!’ Do not go running off after them. For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other. But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.
“Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.
“It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.
“It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. On that day no one who is on the housetop, with possessions inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. Remember Lot’s wife! Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it. I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left.”
“Where, Lord?” they asked. He replied, “Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather.”"
My wife and I used to read a lot of books from NT Wright - a very well respected New Testament Scholar. In fact we heard him speak at the Mere Anglicanism conference a few years back. We had purchased a set of commentaries by him, and I confess, which has been sitting on our bookshelf untouched! So I decided to read what he has to say about this passage. What I quoted below (dictated and converted with my iPhone!) gave me lots of new insight:
"What does the word apocalypse conjure up to you? Hollywood fantasies? Stars falling from the sky, volcanoes and earthquakes? People in terror, panicking and rushing this way and that?
The Bible has plenty of apocalypses, and sometimes they sound like that. This passage is one of them: Noah’s flood sweeping everybody away, and fire and sulphur raining on Sodom as Lot and his family escaped. That’s exactly the sort of thing many people think of when they hear the word apocalypse.
But did Jesus think it would be like that? What does this passage mean?
There has been a growth industry in writing books based on passages like this. One will be taken, and the other left; some have assumed that being taken in this sense means being snatched up to heaven to be with God, leaving the others behind to survive in a frightening world from which all the true believers have been removed. That’s not what the passage means, though; it’s actually the other way round. The people who are taken are the ones in danger; they are being taken away by hostile forces, taken away to their doom.
But what are these hostile forces? What are the eagles that will gather around the body, and what will they do? And what has all these got to do with the days of the son of man witch the disciples will long for but won’t see?
The rest of Luke’s gospel makes it clear how he thought we should understand it. The passage does not refer to an event in which natural or supernatural forces will devastate our town, a region, or the known world; rather, like so many of Jesus warnings in Luke, it refers to the time when enemy armies will invade and wreak sudden destruction. The word that means vultures is the same word as eagles (ancient writers thought vultures were a kind of eagle), and there may be a cryptic reference here to the Roman legions, with the eagle as their imperial badge.
This makes sense of the warnings. When the legions arrive, the best thing to do is to get out and run; don’t even think about collecting belongings. Normal life will be going on one moment, the next there will be a panic, and the wisest advice is not to think about the necessities of life itself until you’re well out-of-the-way. People who are found either asleep or working indoors at the mill, and thus taken unawares, will find that the invaders will snatch one here and one there. And there won’t be any doubt that it’s happening. It won’t be a spiritual event that would need special discernment. It will be like lightning, suddenly lighting up a dark sky.
What has this got to do then with 'the son of man'? The days of the Son of Man seems to refer to the days when as in the prophecy of Daniel (chapter 7) the one like a son of man will be vindicated by God after suffering. The sign of this will be the destruction of the oppressor, the power that has opposed God’s people and God‘s purpose. In Daniel, this power is the fourth beast, the greatest of the pagan armies. For Jesus, in one of the most dramatic twists of thinking, the force that has most directly opposed his teaching and his kingdom ministry is official Israel itself, focus on the temple and it’s hierarchy, and the Pharisees whose thinking and practice derived from the temple.
We have seen again and again in Luke that Jesus warns of awful destruction coming upon his contemporaries for their failure to heed his message. Now he uses the apocalyptic language of some Jewish prophecy to ram the same warnings home. The days of 'the son of man' are the days in which this figure representing God’s true people, is finally vindicated after his suffering. And that vindication will take the form of the destruction of the city, and the temple, that have set their face against his gospel of peace.
Why then does Jesus say, at the start of his message, that God‘s kingdom isn’t the sort of thing for which there are advance signs?
The question from the Pharisees implied that Jesus has a timetable in mind, in which certain things would happen in a particular order so that one could tick them off and get ready for the final drama. Part of Jesus answer as we have seen is that it won’t be like that. Life will go on as normal until the last moment; but there is something else to be said as well. God‘s kingdom he says, is within your grasp.
The phrase he uses is in verse 21 is sometimes translated within you, and people have often thought it meant that the kingdom is purely spiritual, a private, interior relationship with God. But Jesus never uses God‘s kingdom in that sense. It always refers to something that happened in the public world, not to private experience. Others have suggested that the phrase means in your midst; God’s kingdom, in other words, is present but secret, hidden, waiting for them to discover it. That is closer, but still not quite there. The phrase is more active. It doesn’t just tell you where the kingdom is; it tells you that you’ve got to do something about it. It is within your grasp; it is confronting you with a decision, the decision to believe, trust and follow Jesus. It isn’t the sort of things that’s just going to happen, so that you can sit back and watch. God’s sovereign plan to put the world to rights is waiting for you to sign on. That is the force of what Jesus is saying.
The warnings of Jesus came through in A.D. 70. But the promise of the kingdom remains. It may well be that, at the still-future time when God finally overcomes sin and death for good and remakes the heavens and the earth, there will once more be a moment when, in the midst of normal life, ruin breaks in on those who have not heeded God’s call. But that isn’t what this passage is about. The passage holds out an invitation, to this day, to those who are anxious about the future: God’s sovereign rule of the world, his healing love, are not only yours for the grasping, but are waiting for your help."
Today's scripture passage is a familiar one which I never managed to quite understand. It's taken from Luke 17:20-37: The Coming of the Kingdom of God
"Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.”
Then he said to his disciples, “The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it. People will tell you, ‘There he is!’ or ‘Here he is!’ Do not go running off after them. For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other. But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.
“Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.
“It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.
“It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. On that day no one who is on the housetop, with possessions inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. Remember Lot’s wife! Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it. I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left.”
“Where, Lord?” they asked. He replied, “Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather.”"
My wife and I used to read a lot of books from NT Wright - a very well respected New Testament Scholar. In fact we heard him speak at the Mere Anglicanism conference a few years back. We had purchased a set of commentaries by him, and I confess, which has been sitting on our bookshelf untouched! So I decided to read what he has to say about this passage. What I quoted below (dictated and converted with my iPhone!) gave me lots of new insight:
"What does the word apocalypse conjure up to you? Hollywood fantasies? Stars falling from the sky, volcanoes and earthquakes? People in terror, panicking and rushing this way and that?
The Bible has plenty of apocalypses, and sometimes they sound like that. This passage is one of them: Noah’s flood sweeping everybody away, and fire and sulphur raining on Sodom as Lot and his family escaped. That’s exactly the sort of thing many people think of when they hear the word apocalypse.
But did Jesus think it would be like that? What does this passage mean?
There has been a growth industry in writing books based on passages like this. One will be taken, and the other left; some have assumed that being taken in this sense means being snatched up to heaven to be with God, leaving the others behind to survive in a frightening world from which all the true believers have been removed. That’s not what the passage means, though; it’s actually the other way round. The people who are taken are the ones in danger; they are being taken away by hostile forces, taken away to their doom.
But what are these hostile forces? What are the eagles that will gather around the body, and what will they do? And what has all these got to do with the days of the son of man witch the disciples will long for but won’t see?
The rest of Luke’s gospel makes it clear how he thought we should understand it. The passage does not refer to an event in which natural or supernatural forces will devastate our town, a region, or the known world; rather, like so many of Jesus warnings in Luke, it refers to the time when enemy armies will invade and wreak sudden destruction. The word that means vultures is the same word as eagles (ancient writers thought vultures were a kind of eagle), and there may be a cryptic reference here to the Roman legions, with the eagle as their imperial badge.
This makes sense of the warnings. When the legions arrive, the best thing to do is to get out and run; don’t even think about collecting belongings. Normal life will be going on one moment, the next there will be a panic, and the wisest advice is not to think about the necessities of life itself until you’re well out-of-the-way. People who are found either asleep or working indoors at the mill, and thus taken unawares, will find that the invaders will snatch one here and one there. And there won’t be any doubt that it’s happening. It won’t be a spiritual event that would need special discernment. It will be like lightning, suddenly lighting up a dark sky.
What has this got to do then with 'the son of man'? The days of the Son of Man seems to refer to the days when as in the prophecy of Daniel (chapter 7) the one like a son of man will be vindicated by God after suffering. The sign of this will be the destruction of the oppressor, the power that has opposed God’s people and God‘s purpose. In Daniel, this power is the fourth beast, the greatest of the pagan armies. For Jesus, in one of the most dramatic twists of thinking, the force that has most directly opposed his teaching and his kingdom ministry is official Israel itself, focus on the temple and it’s hierarchy, and the Pharisees whose thinking and practice derived from the temple.
We have seen again and again in Luke that Jesus warns of awful destruction coming upon his contemporaries for their failure to heed his message. Now he uses the apocalyptic language of some Jewish prophecy to ram the same warnings home. The days of 'the son of man' are the days in which this figure representing God’s true people, is finally vindicated after his suffering. And that vindication will take the form of the destruction of the city, and the temple, that have set their face against his gospel of peace.
Why then does Jesus say, at the start of his message, that God‘s kingdom isn’t the sort of thing for which there are advance signs?
The question from the Pharisees implied that Jesus has a timetable in mind, in which certain things would happen in a particular order so that one could tick them off and get ready for the final drama. Part of Jesus answer as we have seen is that it won’t be like that. Life will go on as normal until the last moment; but there is something else to be said as well. God‘s kingdom he says, is within your grasp.
The phrase he uses is in verse 21 is sometimes translated within you, and people have often thought it meant that the kingdom is purely spiritual, a private, interior relationship with God. But Jesus never uses God‘s kingdom in that sense. It always refers to something that happened in the public world, not to private experience. Others have suggested that the phrase means in your midst; God’s kingdom, in other words, is present but secret, hidden, waiting for them to discover it. That is closer, but still not quite there. The phrase is more active. It doesn’t just tell you where the kingdom is; it tells you that you’ve got to do something about it. It is within your grasp; it is confronting you with a decision, the decision to believe, trust and follow Jesus. It isn’t the sort of things that’s just going to happen, so that you can sit back and watch. God’s sovereign plan to put the world to rights is waiting for you to sign on. That is the force of what Jesus is saying.
The warnings of Jesus came through in A.D. 70. But the promise of the kingdom remains. It may well be that, at the still-future time when God finally overcomes sin and death for good and remakes the heavens and the earth, there will once more be a moment when, in the midst of normal life, ruin breaks in on those who have not heeded God’s call. But that isn’t what this passage is about. The passage holds out an invitation, to this day, to those who are anxious about the future: God’s sovereign rule of the world, his healing love, are not only yours for the grasping, but are waiting for your help."
Monday 12 November 2018
The Perfect Sacrifice
This will be a short blog. I haven't been feeling great for the last few days. I suspect my concussion from a bike accident a few months ago has finally caught up with me. Too much screen time seems to bring on nausea and vomiting. This is the second episode within the last 2-3 weeks. I am learning to offer this up for the salvation of my children.
Today's passage is from Hebrews 9:24-28:
"For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made by human hands, a mere copy of the true one, but he entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself again and again, as the high priest enters the Holy Place year after year with blood that is not his own; for then he would have had to suffer again and again since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for mortals to die once, and after that the judgement, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him."
This passage is first of all contrasting the sacrifice offered by the Levitical priest and the supreme sacrifice offered by Christ. Here is a list of the contrasts:
It highlights the more perfect sacrifice that Jesus has made on my behalf. Each time I received the Holy Eucharist, containing the real Presence of Christ, I followed what most people do, walked a couple of steps aside, looked up to the cross, and gave thanks!!
Today's passage is from Hebrews 9:24-28:
"For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made by human hands, a mere copy of the true one, but he entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself again and again, as the high priest enters the Holy Place year after year with blood that is not his own; for then he would have had to suffer again and again since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for mortals to die once, and after that the judgement, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him."
This passage is first of all contrasting the sacrifice offered by the Levitical priest and the supreme sacrifice offered by Christ. Here is a list of the contrasts:
| Levitical Priest | Jesus |
| entered a sanctuary made by human hands (a mere copy) | entered into heaven itself (the true one) |
| to offer himself again and again (as the high priest enters the Holy Place year after year) | appeared once for all at the end of the age |
| with blood that is not his own (for then he would have had to suffer again and again) | to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself |
| died once and faced judgement |
offered Himself once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time... to save those who are eagerly waiting for Him |
Friday 2 November 2018
A Fresh Understanding of All Souls Day, and Purgatory
All Souls Day
November 2nd is All Souls Day, sometimes called the Day of the Dead. On this day, and during the month of November, the Church prays in a special way for the souls of the faithful departed, and individuals pray especially for those whom they have known and loved. The Holy Souls in purgatory died in the mercy of God, thus they are called "holy." However, because they still had attachment to sin at the time of their death, they must undergo the spiritual purification of their souls before they are able to fully love God with their whole heart, mind, and soul for all eternity. As they are nevertheless part of the communion of saints, they depend upon us to help ease their suffering and quickly advance them through their purification so that they can join the saints in heaven. Those in purgatory cannot pray for themselves, this is why they are also called "poor." They can no longer merit anything for themselves and rely entirely on living souls to pray and make sacrifices on their behalf.Since becoming a Catholic, I have learned that those who die in the grace of God do not just go to heaven. They are not ready to see the infinitely perfect and holy God. He is so bright that our eyes will go blind! Our sins have been forgiven but we need to learn from our sins to become perfect and ready - it's called the Reparation for Sins. It explains one of the most mysterious passages of scripture: "Now I rejoice in my suffering for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of His body, that is, the Church...." (Colossians 1:24). Dr. David Anders of the Called to Communion radio talk show gave this wonderful analogy: if my son throws a baseball in the kitchen and breaks a vase; tells me he is sorry; I forgive him; but for his benefits I give him a bloom and a dust pan to clean up the mess... This is reparation! And they do the reparation in Purgatory. Catholic Answers has a beautiful explanation on Purgatory.
I never know and cannot know what is the final destiny of those who died. God is the judge. But with the hope I have in a merciful God I pray for those who have died - my parents, my older half-sister, and many of my patients, that they may share the eternal home with all the angels and saints.
Oh what a glorious calling to partner with God in helping my loved ones to become saints!
Thursday 1 November 2018
A Fresh Understanding of All Saints Day
Be a saint – What else is there? Patrick Coffin
Today is All Saints Day. All my readings today pertain to a fresh look of what heaven is like now, and what lies ahead. This is one of the benefits of being Catholic. There is a clearer teaching of heaven, with all its angels and saints! Their current activities are not hidden. We can pray to them, or rather we can ask them to pray for us.
Who are these saints?
"These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." (Revelation 7:14b).
What are they doing now?
"For this reason they are before the throne of God,
and worship him day and night within his temple,
and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them.
They will hunger no more, and thirst no more;
the sun will not strike them,
nor any scorching heat;
for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd,
and he will guide them to springs of the water of life,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." (Revelation 7:15-17)
Psalm 24 speaks of the saints this way:
"Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?
And who shall stand in his holy place?
Those who have clean hands and pure hearts,
who do not lift up their souls to what is false,
and do not swear deceitfully.
They will receive blessing from the Lord,
and vindication from the God of their salvation.
Such is the company of those who seek him,
who seek the face of the God of Jacob." (Psalm 24:3-6)
And we look forward to what is to come:
"See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure." (1 John 3:1-3)
I read the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1-12) again this morning and found it comforting that what Jesus taught will be completely realized in heaven!
I also read a sermon of St Bernard of Clairvaux on the saints and heaven. It's titled "Let us make haste to our brethren who are awaiting us" (i.e. the saints who are already in heaven are waiting for us):
"Why should our praise and glorification, or even the celebration of this feast day mean anything to the saints? What do they care about earthly honours when their heavenly Father honours them by fulfilling the faithful promise of the Son? What does our commendation mean to them? The saints have no need of honour from us; neither does our devotion add the slightest thing to what is theirs. Clearly, if we venerate their memory, it serves us, not them. But I tell you, when I think of them, I feel myself inflamed by a tremendous yearning.
Calling the saints to mind inspires, or rather arouses in us, above all else, a longing to enjoy their company, so desirable in itself. We long to share in the citizenship of heaven, to dwell with the spirits of the blessed, to join the assembly of patriarchs, the ranks of the prophets, the council of apostles, the great host of martyrs, the noble company of confessors and the choir of virgins. In short, we long to be united in happiness with all the saints. But our dispositions change. The Church of all the first followers of Christ awaits us, but we do nothing about it. The saints want us to be with them, and we are indifferent. The souls of the just await us, and we ignore them.
Come, brothers, let us at length spur ourselves on. We must rise again with Christ, we must seek the world which is above and set our mind on the things of heaven. Let us long for those who are longing for us, hasten to those who are waiting for us, and ask those who look for our coming to intercede for us. We should not only want to be with the saints, we should also hope to possess their happiness. While we desire to be in their company, we must also earnestly seek to share in their glory. Do not imagine that there is anything harmful in such an ambition as this; there is no danger in setting our hearts on such glory.
When we commemorate the saints we are inflamed with another yearning: that Christ our life may also appear to us as he appeared to them and that we may one day share in his glory. Until then we see him, not as he is, but as he became for our sake. He is our head, crowned, not with glory, but with the thorns of our sins. As members of that head, crowned with thorns, we should be ashamed to live in luxury; his purple robes are a mockery rather than an honour. When Christ comes again, his death shall no longer be proclaimed, and we shall know that we also have died, and that our life is hidden with him. The glorious head of the Church will appear and his glorified members will shine in splendour with him, when he forms this lowly body anew into such glory as belongs to himself, its head.
Therefore, we should aim at attaining this glory with a wholehearted and prudent desire. That we may rightly hope and strive for such blessedness, we must above all seek the prayers of the saints. Thus, what is beyond our own powers to obtain will be granted through their intercession."
Today is All Saints Day. All my readings today pertain to a fresh look of what heaven is like now, and what lies ahead. This is one of the benefits of being Catholic. There is a clearer teaching of heaven, with all its angels and saints! Their current activities are not hidden. We can pray to them, or rather we can ask them to pray for us.
Who are these saints?
"These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." (Revelation 7:14b).
What are they doing now?
"For this reason they are before the throne of God,
and worship him day and night within his temple,
and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them.
They will hunger no more, and thirst no more;
the sun will not strike them,
nor any scorching heat;
for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd,
and he will guide them to springs of the water of life,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." (Revelation 7:15-17)
Psalm 24 speaks of the saints this way:
"Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?
And who shall stand in his holy place?
Those who have clean hands and pure hearts,
who do not lift up their souls to what is false,
and do not swear deceitfully.
They will receive blessing from the Lord,
and vindication from the God of their salvation.
Such is the company of those who seek him,
who seek the face of the God of Jacob." (Psalm 24:3-6)
And we look forward to what is to come:
"See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure." (1 John 3:1-3)
I read the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1-12) again this morning and found it comforting that what Jesus taught will be completely realized in heaven!
I also read a sermon of St Bernard of Clairvaux on the saints and heaven. It's titled "Let us make haste to our brethren who are awaiting us" (i.e. the saints who are already in heaven are waiting for us):
"Why should our praise and glorification, or even the celebration of this feast day mean anything to the saints? What do they care about earthly honours when their heavenly Father honours them by fulfilling the faithful promise of the Son? What does our commendation mean to them? The saints have no need of honour from us; neither does our devotion add the slightest thing to what is theirs. Clearly, if we venerate their memory, it serves us, not them. But I tell you, when I think of them, I feel myself inflamed by a tremendous yearning.
Calling the saints to mind inspires, or rather arouses in us, above all else, a longing to enjoy their company, so desirable in itself. We long to share in the citizenship of heaven, to dwell with the spirits of the blessed, to join the assembly of patriarchs, the ranks of the prophets, the council of apostles, the great host of martyrs, the noble company of confessors and the choir of virgins. In short, we long to be united in happiness with all the saints. But our dispositions change. The Church of all the first followers of Christ awaits us, but we do nothing about it. The saints want us to be with them, and we are indifferent. The souls of the just await us, and we ignore them.
Come, brothers, let us at length spur ourselves on. We must rise again with Christ, we must seek the world which is above and set our mind on the things of heaven. Let us long for those who are longing for us, hasten to those who are waiting for us, and ask those who look for our coming to intercede for us. We should not only want to be with the saints, we should also hope to possess their happiness. While we desire to be in their company, we must also earnestly seek to share in their glory. Do not imagine that there is anything harmful in such an ambition as this; there is no danger in setting our hearts on such glory.
When we commemorate the saints we are inflamed with another yearning: that Christ our life may also appear to us as he appeared to them and that we may one day share in his glory. Until then we see him, not as he is, but as he became for our sake. He is our head, crowned, not with glory, but with the thorns of our sins. As members of that head, crowned with thorns, we should be ashamed to live in luxury; his purple robes are a mockery rather than an honour. When Christ comes again, his death shall no longer be proclaimed, and we shall know that we also have died, and that our life is hidden with him. The glorious head of the Church will appear and his glorified members will shine in splendour with him, when he forms this lowly body anew into such glory as belongs to himself, its head.
Therefore, we should aim at attaining this glory with a wholehearted and prudent desire. That we may rightly hope and strive for such blessedness, we must above all seek the prayers of the saints. Thus, what is beyond our own powers to obtain will be granted through their intercession."
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