Readings: Acts 7:55-60; Rev 22:12-14, 16-17, 20; Jn 17:20-26
Throughout the Church year we celebrate the fact that God loves us so much that He became one of us; He lived among us, He died for us, and He opened the way to eternal life for us. Much focus, properly, is placed on the Passion, death, and resurrection. However, during most of what is now called “Ordinary Time” we reflect on our Lord’s teachings and His life, but there is very little said about the fact that He lived among us. Perhaps we just take that for granted, or maybe we see this as the prerequisite to His Passion.
I mention this simply because in the readings today we see the reversal of our Lord’s presence with us, and if we can recognize the importance of the reversal, then we can perhaps see the extraordinary nature of the life of Jesus on earth. In the Gospel reading, Jesus prays that “where I am they also may be with me, that they may see my glory that you gave me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world.” To get to Heaven is, ultimately, all that is important. To be with Jesus for eternity is what He desires for us. The question we all need to ask is, “Do I desire to be with Jesus for eternity?”
Of course, everyone reading this will immediately answer in the affirmative. But we need to consider this from another perspective. This is not merely a generic question about personal preferences. I think most people, if given the choice between the glory of Heaven and the horrors of hell would say they would prefer Heaven. This is most often done for selfish reasons, that is, it sounds like it is more pleasant (and it is).
But when Jesus chose to come to earth, He did not come here because it was more pleasant than being in Heaven. He came for the purpose of suffering and dying for us. He also lived a human life for thirty-three years to teach us by word and example how we should live our lives on earth. He was rejected and ridiculed throughout His life and, finally, suffered greatly. In other words, He did not come to earth for a selfish reason; rather, He came purely out of love.
Since love is the essence of life in Heaven, there can be no selfishness. As Christian people, we are to follow the example of our Lord. If we break everything in our Lord’s life down to one principle, it is simply love. If we are going to live according to His teaching, He commanded us to love; if we are going to live according to His example, we will walk in the way of charity. Following the example of Jesus does not necessarily imply that we will need to suffer and die as He did, although some will be martyrs, as we see with St. Stephen in the first reading.
For all of us, however, we will need to die to self if we are going to be able to love as we would want to love. There will be periods of suffering in every life which we can use either to draw near to Jesus or to walk away from Him. If we depart from Him because of our sufferings, we will become bitter and selfish. If we use the suffering in our life to draw near to our Lord, little by little we will be conformed to Him. We will become more compassionate, we will become more gentle, we will become more conformed to love.
In the second reading, we hear the Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” St. John also says: “Let the hearer say, “Come.” He goes on to say, “Let the one who thirsts come forward, and the one who wants it receive the gift of life-giving water.” We are being invited to Heaven, to drink of the life-giving water. But are we willing, as the hearer, to respond? Are we willing to say, “Come, Lord Jesus?”
This is a critical question for two reasons. First, because we say we want to go to Heaven, but we would balk at the invitation if it were made today. Second, if the invitation is not for the immediate, but for us to get on the path that will lead us to Heaven, many of us stumble because we like our sins more than doing things God’s way. If we think of this another way, we like death more than we desire life.
As followers of Christ, if we want to be where Jesus is, then we need to meditate on Jesus coming to where we are. The path by which He came to us is the one that will lead us to Him. That path is charity!
Fr. Altier’s column appears regularly in The Wanderer, a national Catholic weekly published in St. Paul, Minn. For information about subscribing to The Wanderer, please visit www.thewandererpress.com.
