A reading of the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark. Our lord said to his disciples, during that period, after trials of every sort, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not shed its light, Stars will fall out of the skies, and the heavenly hosts will be shaken. Then men will see the son of man coming in the clouds with great power and with great glory. He will dispatch his messengers and assemble his chosen from the four winds of the earth, from the farthest bounds of earth and sky. Learn a lesson from the fig tree.
Once the sap of its branches runs high and begins to sprout leaves. You know that summer is near. In the same way, when you see these things happening, you will know that he is near even at the door. Notice that pronoun, he. I assure you this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.
The heavens and the earth will pass away, but my words will not. As to the exact day or the hour, no one knows it. Neither the angels in heaven nor even the son, but only the father. And this is the gospel, the good news of the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen.
Something extraordinary happened to me yesterday afternoon back there at that holy water fountain where we baptized these darling little babies. After putting the poor kid through the rigamarole, you know, and pouring that water, which was a little bit cool yesterday afternoon on the baby's head, when it was all over and they dried him, made him look pretty decent once again. That little baby looked up at me and gave me the best smile you ever saw. It's the first time it ever happened. It was sort of a glimpse of heaven.
I think Francis Thompson would have said that, but it's true. Really true. That little baby gave me a great big wide smile because if there was any angels around, he certainly was among them. And the whole thrust see, I don't have many American weddings. I don't have many baptisms.
So the every baptism is an extraordinary event, this was a little more extraordinary than the other extraordinary. But you see, the whole thrust of that baptismal rite explicitly, explicitly, is to talk to that is to say to that little baby just a few weeks, a few months old, to the mother and the father, look. You're a you've got one foot already in heaven, we hope. Time just elapses. And at the end of this ceremony, we tell the little baby here, put on this white garment and keep it immaculate.
Here, take this candle. Be a Lucifer, bearer of the light. And then the prayer goes on as if he were already facing god in the last judgment. And then the right ends with a prayer for the mother and for the father, separate prayers, where they are now at home with god their father and maker, and the church prays that they will have done their duty to bring that little baby up to follow them into heaven. You see, that baptismal rite is a very, very touching for me.
And even if the baby doesn't give you a smile, that's that's extra special. But it's a very, very moving rite and extremely basic. And that's what I talked about last Sunday or tried to, and I didn't get through the what I didn't wanna do, I did. I talked mostly about the negative aspects of heaven because they are the easiest things to talk about. As Saint Augustine said, it's easy to talk about than what heaven is not.
It's very difficult to talk about what heaven is, and that's what I wanna do today. And I I sure wanna get to the my last point, which is I told you last Sunday. The first funeral I had was at nativity in 1935. I'd just been ordained a few weeks. And, I was told I was having a funeral just a few well, I was told that just about a day before the actual service.
This young father of a couple that had just been married less than a year on, Memorial Day walked into the Chesapeake Bay and drowned or died. And his young widow and his mother, all they could say to me when we try when we were making the funeral arrangements, does he know us? Is he aware of what's going on with us here? That's all they wanted to know. Now that's my last point number six.
So I'd I'm gonna have time for that because that's a very important point. Now first, I wanna give you of two texts. The first one was from Saint Paul's letter to the Romans. This is the word of god, remember. I consider, says Saint Paul, talking to the Romans, where he was where he was going, you know, to face his martyrdom, that the sufferings of this he was a he was a prisoner when he wrote this.
That the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to reveal to be to be revealed to us in the life to come. That's very positive. But the question is, what is glory? What is it? Then I hope you recognize this text.
It's what I used last Sunday because it's so contrary to the way we live for the most part. This is the introit from the mass for the twenty sixth Sunday of the year, and we pray as follows. Father, help us to hurry toward eternal life, the life that you have promised, and so come to share in the joy of your kingdom. As I said last Sunday, I'm not aware of any lines forming in a rush to get there, but that's what we pray here. Help us to hurry towards eternity.
Most of us, if not all of us, wanna push that day off as much as possible, but that's what we pray. That's the Christian view because we are born not to die, but to live forever with god in eternity. That's what we're here for. And that baptismal ceremony yesterday, it's just full of that idea that the years drop by like nothing. And we're born and then we die and then what?
Everything is the what? Because we're in the presence of god. And if people don't understand what heaven means positively, the reason is we have not sat down quietly, thoughtfully, read, argued, thought about, debated what is god. See, we don't do that. You take a piece of paper when you need some time today, and you take and write or put go to your word processor and try to write 50 words of your conception of god, see what you come up with.
And yet we talk about god. We give our lives to god. We say we're living for god. The baby is baptized to become a member of god's family. We talk about god.
We sing about God. The word God is thrown all around. I don't care what language you use. But what do we mean in reality? You see, the logic of positivists have a point.
We use words, and they're only signs. And we think we know something because we know a word. No decent scientist does that. No biologist does that. He he what he talks about is so he he says, that's what I'm talking about.
He points to it, but you can't do that with god. God is inexpressible, but you have to do the best you can. Do we do it? And so our whole conception of god really rest upon our conception of what god is because that's what I'm going to come back to. Now the most authoritative text that we have on what is heaven, leaving aside all the defined poetical, emotional, sentimental, very persuasive descriptions we have of heaven, the most authoritative statement we have is from Benedict the twelfth, and he and it was a a document that he proclaimed in 1336.
1336. And that's what he here's what he says. We define notice there's no question. This was a as formal a statement as a pope can make. We define that those in heaven see the divine essence with an intuitive face to face vision.
The divine essence directly no intermediary directly manifests itself to them plainly, clearly, and openly. And you say, well, what do these words mean? Well, now what do they mean to you? This this is the English. He wrote the Latin.
That there's no problem. What what does these words mean? It means that as I see that light burning there directly, it's not the I don't use a syllogism. I don't use any reasoning processes. I just see that light.
If I put my finger over it, I directly, immediately get a feel of burning. It's not an it's it's not a it's not a metaphor. It's not a figure of speech. There's no analogy. There's no reasoning.
It's direct. And and Benedict the twelfth is saying, that's what we will have in heaven, a direct vision of god almighty to see him as he is. That takes preparation. Remember, a mirror can only reflect an image in proportion to the perfection of the mirror. A cloudy mirror gives you a cloudy image.
We have to be prepared for heaven. Now I and here's a summary, a very brief summary of the negative view of heaven. There's plenty about heaven on the negative side. Eye has not seen nor ear heard, neither have they entered into the heart of man the things that god has prepared for those who love him. Saint Paul, first Corinthians.
But you see, that's all negative. You can say that of this book. And whatever you can say about something is that it is, not what it is not. And so what is heaven? What can we say about it positively?
Remember, Dante wrote his divine comedy, and it has to do with heaven, hell, and purgatory. You know which one of the three books is the more pop most popular? Not not the Paradiso, not heaven, but hell. Read it, and you'll know why. So now I wanna raise six points that that I based upon the New Testament, based upon Karl Rahner, based upon John Harden, based upon Saint Thomas Aquinas, that notice, these are not definitions of faith.
Benedict's Benedict the twelfth state is a is a definition of faith. Here's what I come up with. First of all, that heaven is a reward. A re don't be afraid of that. See, we went you don't hear much about it, but I lived through this period when when we were told we mustn't hold up rewards for our children.
We mustn't give awards in classes. We in other words, that was demeaning to the children. That what or or grown up children, namely adults. You'll notice that the army, the navy, the marine corps, the coast guard, they never they never accepted this junk. You can scarcely move without getting a ribbon or something or other because that's the way we are.
It's purely good psychology. And thanks to mister Skinner, doctor Skinner, we've come back to that. Although I don't want you know, he was a little wacky. He's the guy who put his baby, you know, in the little box. But the point is he brought this back.
The only difference is that while he insisted upon rewards, he did he rejected the idea of punishment. In other words, no punishment, but plenty of awards. And he tried this out in jail and and proved it was right. What I'm can't go into this, but the point is don't be afraid of saying, I do this because I want to go to heaven, and I don't wanna go to hell. Because if you miss heaven, there's only other choice.
And if you want a definition of hell, just take this definition of heaven that Benedict gave and say you will not be with god for eternity, and that is the hell of your situation. So the the whole idea of hell rest upon your conception of god and of heaven. So the first thing that the New Testament and the New Testament is full of it. Our blessed lord was constantly saying this, that the people what you do will be rewarded, and what you do wrong, that will be rewarded too. He he was no doctor Skinner.
He held to both of those things. And there's nothing wrong in saying I'm doing this for a reward. It's not demeaning. It can be under certain circumstances, of course. You can use the 15 of 18 karat gold knife and use it as a screwdriver.
You can do that, but it ruins the knife. It doesn't move the screw. And so let let let us think of heaven. Let us think with Saint Paul. Life is not always a gorgeous cloud nine affair.
Believe me. It has its troughs of despair almost, almost despair. After all, our lord almost despaired. And there's nothing wrong at all when the going gets tough is to say, lord, I'll be happy to get out of this mess. I heard a lady say that forty eight hours ago.
And she I mean, she's not despondent. She says, I've I've lived my life. I brought my children up. I'm ready to go. I'm willing to go.
I've had enough of it. I wanna go home. As miss Keller said, it's it's like going from one room into the other, only in that other room, I will see. See? She had a very good conception of heaven that we will see god as he is.
So reward, that's the first thing. The second these are in numerical order, not in order of priority. The second thing is that heaven is eternal. Now listen. There's no time and no space.
Now you think of this. You can't envision this. Your imagination cannot get it. All you can do is try to eliminate that. And when you do, what are you left with?
No time, no space. It's a world of eternity, not immortality, but eternity. No time. So there's no past, no future, just a present because that's the way it is with god. I am who am.
That's the best definition we have of god. He gave it himself. So first reward, then it's eternal. The third thing, human nature is not violated. Human nature is not rejected.
We go to heaven as human beings, not as angels, not as pure spirits. We go as human beings with our memories, with the past, and we go as individuals. Here's where we separate company completely with the oriental religions. We are not absorbed in god. We see god.
We participate in his own life, a divine life, but we don't become divine. We keep our individualities. I go to heaven as Joe McAllister with certain parents, went to certain schools, got into certain troubles, got out of them more or less, tried to do well sometimes and failed. I go as the individual human being who was absolutely unique and so special because he came from god as an individual creation. As an individual creation, me.
And that's how I go to heaven, and I don't lose it. That's very much saint Thomas Aquinas. The next thing is happiness. What in the world is happiness? Well, if happy see, remember, your your enjoyment, your glory, your happiness of heaven is being conditioned the way you live your daily lives now, the way you polish that mirror, the vessel that you are making that you're molding in daily life, not in the past and not in the future, but in your daily life today.
It's the only reality. Because if if we go to heaven with the appreciation of happiness of a book or of a of a well trained horse, that's what we will have for eternity. We are not transformed in a sense in which we are made into something which we never were. The transformation took place back there yesterday, that little baby, when with the with the baptism, it became a child of god, a participator in the divine life of god. But that the way he will appreciate that, the way he will take it in, the way he will comprehend it is going to be very much conditioned by the way he lives between yesterday when he was baptized and the day that he's anointed with the final anointment and dies to live with god forever.
We can't get out of that. Can't get out of it. I never will forget that professor father Hope. We were reading the, some poetry and the way he went into this. It was the first time I'd heard that done.
So keep keep that in mind. We're not in heaven yet, believe it or not. The honeymooners think they are, but they get over it. We are molding the vessel. We are making the mirror by our daily life living, and And we are, in a sense, die casting our eternity.
Keep that in mind. So what this happiness is going to be, I'll tell you, it's going to be seeing god and loving god. Now here's where Scotus and Aquinas they Aquinas said the main joy of heaven will be knowledge. Well, what's gonna happen for a person never thought of of expanding their intelligence, of knowing anything, just living day by day? And you're going to say their happiness is going to be in knowing and knowing god?
What kind of a mirror are they going to present? Skoda said the essence of heaven is loving god. If you haven't learned to love the true, the good, and the beautiful in this life, what are you going to do for eternity when you don't even know what they are? You haven't any mirror. You haven't molded your cup.
So now remember, they Thomas and and Scotus, they didn't exclude the other. It was just a it was just a question which is prior, knowledge or love. Take your pick. I could care less because they're both there. You love god, and you can't love what you don't know.
Therefore, you know knowledge. Now the final point is the one I started out with, that funeral I had. Do the dead do our dead beloved ones know us? Are we in contact? Look at the altar.
You see those envelopes up there? Every more every day during October, we pray for, I hate this, the poor souls. That's neo Platonism. We don't play pray for souls. We pray for individual human beings who lived, and they weren't souls.
They were human beings. That Platonism that's in the Catholic liturgy. I told you, we go to heaven as individuals, not as souls. We don't lose our human nature. And so we're talking about individuals who have gone into eternity ahead of us because we'll follow, we'll be coming after, just more or less more or less time.
We call it time where and is there a communication? Let me read what Karl Rahner says. That this human relate see, we will not know them individually as we know now because we have we'll have a direct knowledge of god. And in our knowledge of god, since god knows everything, then we will know these relationships. You follow?
Now that isn't Ronner. That's good Catholic doctrine. Not that Ronner's isn't his. Sometimes he is right. In this case, I think he's pretty good.
He says we are existing in god's presence. So that that idea of existing in god's presence implies man's being gathered into the body of Christ. Now we how do we get into the body of Christ? By baptism. Or what takes its place?
Because the church in Vatican 2 says, outside of the church, there is no salvation. Lumen Gentium. Chapter two. But by the time the council gets done telling you who the people of god are, it it practically means everybody who is sincere and honest and and not a hypocrite. So make the best of it you can, but the the church still teaches that outside of the church, there is no salvation.
And the ordinary way we get into the being being members of the body of Christ, the people of god, is through baptism. But that's only part of the story. The second part, as Lumen Jensen points out in chapter two, is, first of all, that we cooperate with god's will, that is doing, keeping the commandments, keeping the law, and that we cooperate with his grace. Without me, god Christ said, you can do nothing. Nothing.
And so the people of god commune with god with a with a an immediate with a direct vision. And so, of course, we say we shall see one another again. Remember what it said. We go into heaven. We do not lose our humanity.
We do not lose our individuality. We will see one another again with recognition, and our human relationships will continue. They will continue. So you could I say? This is nothing new.
I didn't this was what I had to tell this poor widow who was scarcely had scarcely begun to realize that she was married. Here, she's a widow already. She was frantic. Her life was really crushed. And she was crushed, and so was the mother.
It's not all that we might like it to be, but it's a lot. We are we belong to the body of Christ, the church militant, the church triumphant, and the church suffering in preparation for heaven. We've got to polish that mirror, and we are all one. You see, we we I mean, this we should grip this. This should be something that Newman would say with real ascent.
But as we say today with gut reaction, it's something that should dominate our lives, that we are part of the body of Christ. Some of us are here, the church militant. Of course, the pacifists don't like us to use the word militant. See, that means means soldier. We are soldiers of Christ, and we're in a battle.
We're in a war. Let's not hesitate to say it. And there are some who have made it, the church triumphant. It's not the church. It's the collectivity of the individuals.
And in between, a stage of preparation for those who still need it to really enjoy god face to face for eternity, and that is heaven. We do know what's going on. We do keep our relations. We do know all in that direct vision of god himself. In the name of the father, the son, and the spirit.
Amen.