What Matters to God

Dore's Sketch of the Rich Man and Lazarus

In today’s Gospel, Jesus advises us to “Take care to guard against all greed.” He calls one who only accumulates things for him/herself a fool, forgetting one’s absolute dependency upon God, and forgetting one’s mortality.

Yes, we need things in order to live, but all we can take with us in death are our good deeds. As the saying goes, you never see a U-Haul trailer following a hearse to the cemetery.

The reality of death challenges us to answer the most important questions in life: how shall we live and what shall we do? And so, Jesus urges us to make sure we have our priorities straight. Seek first the things of God.

The so-called last things—hell, purgatory, and heaven—are challenging beliefs in Christianity. How can we say at the same time there’s an all-good God, and there’s a hell? Think about it.  Yes, scripture describes the last things.

But Dante’s The Divine Comedy also imaginatively reveals how he awoke in a dark wood (perhaps a midlife crisis) where Virgil led him through earth to hell (remember Dante’s famous line, “Abandon hope, all ye who enter here”). They saw sinners going to the abode of Satan. Then Dante ascended to purgatory, and finally, with his beloved Beatrice, he climbed the spheres of paradise and into the dazzling vision of the Triune God.

The Divine Comedy is a masterpiece in poetry, not easily readable but profoundly instructive about life. Heaven and hell answer the question of justice. Many good people die without receiving in this life a reward for their goodness, and many wicked people die without paying for their wickedness. If there’s justice, there has to be someplace where wrongs are righted, and someplace where good is rewarded.

So what are hell, purgatory, and heaven? The language is best understood symbolically. God does not “send” us to hell; we freely choose to go (unwisely). Also, while accepting the possibility of hell (in light of the dynamic between God's unconditional love for us and our human freedom to reject that love), we don’t have to believe that human beings are actually “in” such a “place.” In fact, we hope all human beings will find salvation.

If we peel away its fiery imagery, hell can be described as the absence of God, the failure to realize our true selves, whereas heaven is the ultimate fulfillment of our true selves. In heaven, we participate in the mystery of God.

Purgatory then is a “purification” in which we become our true selves.  And judgment is our own recognition of what is right and wrong in ourselves.

Finally, we believe that in the mystery of death, God will transform our earthly selves, like Jesus, into a new, indescribable heavenly reality. St. Paul put it well: “No eye has seen, no mind has ever imagined … what God has prepared for those who love Him.”

Yes, Jesus wants us to be indescribably rich: “rich in what matters to God.” (Luke 12:21)

Saved by Hope

Rembrandt's Ascension

We have been celebrating the Easter Mystery these forty-some days: the death and resurrection of Jesus, today his ascension to our Father in glory, and next Sunday Pentecost or the descent of the Spirit upon the disciples. These are four different aspects of the one Paschal or Easter Mystery.

The ascension is Jesus’s final leave-taking so something awesome can happen. Let us take to heart Jesus’s parting words: “you will be my witnesses … to the ends of the earth” Yes, Jesus leaves to us the mission of continuing God’s work on earth: proclaiming the good news to all.

The ascension connects the Gospel and the book of Acts which heralds the beginning of the church’s ministry.

In the Gospel according to Luke, Jesus tells the disciples that they are to proclaim the good news to all people, and that Jesus, gloriously alive, will send the promise of God, the Spirit, so they can continue his saving ministry until he comes again at the end-time to transform this universe into a new, indescribable reality. And then Jesus was taken up into heaven; and the disciples were filled with hope.

Hope is a confident anticipation of something yet to come. Pope emeritus Benedict XVI captured its meaning magnificently in his encyclical Saved by Hope. This hope looks forward to seeing God as God really is—face-to-face.

Hope looks for the good. Hope discovers what can be done. Hope propels us forward.

History is filled with people of hope. One of my favorites is Helen Keller, who overcame physical obstacles that most of us can’t imagine. Here is a thought of hers that speaks of hope. Helen wrote, “When one door of happiness closes, another opens but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.”

Helen Keller also observed, “No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars or sailed to an unchartered land or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.” We too, with a positive can-do spirit, can find a world of possibilities.

Hope points to the future. We are fascinated with the future. What will it be like? We see change everywhere. Some may not like it. But how react?

There is only one Christian response to the future: hope. Images of hope weave in and out of the bible. God by the power of the Spirit transformed the earthly Jesus into a heavenly Jesus. And Christ anticipates God’s future for all of us.

Yes, the universe in which we live has an ultimate purpose. Hope challenges us to do everything we can to usher in the future: always to be in relationship with God and in relationship with one another as compassionate, generous, forgiving and fair human beings. Above all, hope challenges us to reach out to that which alone is of everlasting value—the human person, the image of God, no matter how unkempt the appearance. In the end, all hope will be realized when the risen Christ, by the power of the Spirit, hands over the universe at the end of time to his heavenly Father.

May God fill us with hope this Ascension Day and every day.

Jesus Christ Will Come Again

Michelangelo's Last Judgment in Sistine Chapel

Thursday, families will celebrate Thanksgiving: giving thanks to God for life, family and friends. Even amid the devastating wildfires in California, many first responders are stepping up to help save lives and property. We thank God for these brave men and women.

The holidays are here. Here’s my advice: hang around positive people. Surround yourself with what you love—family, pets, hobbies. Tell them that you love them. Live gratefully. Above all, focus on God everyday through prayer.

The liturgical year celebrates the story of our salvation. The cycle begins in Advent, then Christmas, on to Lent. Next, Holy Week. The Easter season concludes with the outpouring of the Spirit anew at Pentecost. The cycle continues in ordinary time. We walk with Jesus as he works signs and wonders proclaiming that the kingdom of God is breaking into our lives.

This liturgical cycle culminates in the final coming of Jesus Christ in glory. Next Sunday, on the feast of Christ the King, we observe the end of salvation history when (to quote the letter of Paul) every human being and all that is will be subjected to Christ, who will deliver the Kingdom of God over to his heavenly Father.

Yes, we celebrate the story that began on the first page of Scripture: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” -- a story that ends on the last page of Scripture with the Maranatha prayer: “Come, Lord Jesus.” God will transform this universe into his glorious kingdom in all its fullness. We proclaim in the Eucharistic prayer: “Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.”

How this universe as we know it will end, we don’t know. But how is not the question. Rather the question is: Are we ready to meet the Living Christ when he comes to us in the mystery of death?

Today, the Book of Daniel pleads: don’t give up your faith despite the cruelties you’re enduring; the archangel Michael will protect you. Yes, good will triumph over evil.

The letter to the Hebrews recalls the one sacrifice of Jesus. Through his death and resurrection, Jesus re-established our relationship with God.

In the Gospel according to Mark, Jesus speaks about an apocalypse, with symbolic and scary images. Yes, Jesus Christ will usher in the kingdom of God in all its fullness. The Gospel author urges us always to be ready to meet the Living Christ because we don’t know when He actually will come to us in the mystery of death. And if we're not ready today, when will we be?

You may have read the book “Living a Life that Matters.” In his 40 years as a rabbi, Harold Kushner has cared for many people in the last moments of their lives. The people who had the most trouble with death were those who felt they hadn’t done anything worthwhile.

We shouldn’t be frightened that God will end the world as we know it. What we’re really called to do is to begin bringing about the kingdom of God: by getting our priorities straight, being peacemakers; treating one another fairly; helping people know they have a purpose; and giving a helping hand to others. We can become the compassionate eyes and hopeful voice and generous hands and dedicated feet of Jesus to others until He comes again with great power and glory.

Facing the Light

Christ Risen

The word of God takes us back to the wisdom literature of ancient Israel. The author speaks about a person who always tries to do the right thing. But how do some react? They want to murder him. “Let’s see whether God will rescue him,” they say.

This raises the eternal problem of evil. Why do bad things happen to good people? The word assures us God is close to us, even during the storms or assaults of life.

The author of the letter of James asks: why do some people choose evil? People indeed at times choose wrong over right, falsehood over truth. Christianity calls this human condition “original sin.” The fall from grace is described in the biblical Book of Genesis: man and woman hid from God.

Jesus, the Word made flesh, through his life-giving ministry and terrible death and glorious resurrection is our healer, our reconciler with God and one another. In baptism, we have become by grace what Jesus is by nature: sons and daughters of God, called to live a life worthy of that calling.

In the Gospel according to Mark, Jesus challenges us to serve one another even if it may cost us dearly.  Jesus predicts his own passion and death and resurrection. This mystery reveals our true destiny: in relationship with God forever in a new, indescribable, transformative life.

Jesus brings us face to face with his and our own death: a fact of life.

Today, some people may die in their 90s or 100s in hospitals or nursing homes or hospices, or alone. The best seller “Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End,” by a surgeon, questions when to “let go,” when to stop offering medical treatments that likely don’t work. The doctor asks: why submit the dying to the full panoply of procedures only to see them completely lose their independence.

Many of us know Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’s five stages through which many patients and loved ones may pass:
-Denial: “No, not me.”  A typical response if one is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness.
-Anger: “Why me?” God may be a target especially if one is young. But it's ok to be angry with God.
-Bargaining: “Yes me, but.” The patient accepts, but bargains for more time. I'll do this or that if you, God, lengthen my life.
-Depression: “Yes, me.” The person realizes he/she is not getting better. The person regrets things done or not done.
And finally,
- Acceptance: “My time is running out but it’s all right.”

These stages can apply as well to other major life changes.

Dr. Kubler-Ross also wrote “Death: the Final Stage of Growth.” The title leads us to the Christian understanding of death. The foundation is Good Friday/Easter.

The story of Jesus did not end in the tragedy of the cross but in the triumph of the Resurrection, God transformed Jesus into an indescribable heavenly reality. And God also will transform us into a new kind of spiritual embodiment.

Our faith challenges us to remember that the light of our resurrection will shatter the darkness of our own death.