We’ve just celebrated
the feasts of All Saints and All Souls. What happens when we die? Where do we go?
Pondering these questions may help us get to our desired destination. Yet more essential than what the future holds for us is how we live the present.
The Kaddish, a beautiful Jewish prayer to help mourners, says, Birth is a beginning and death a destination. But life is a journey, a sacred pilgrimage from birth to death and to life everlasting.
"Life is a journey" - best traveled by living it most fully and giving life to others as well. In the words of St. Irenaeus, The glory of God is the human person fully alive.
Similarly, Dag Hammarskjold wrote, We die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined by the steady radiance renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond reason.
We live most fully when we are "illumined" by the Holy Mystery!
Some, instead of living fully today, focus on tomorrow - the hereafter, hoping to enter heaven, often pictured as a glorified resort. There's nothing wrong with that image, as long as we realize it's just an image.
In today's gospel, Jesus makes it clear that life after death is not just an extension of this life. He speaks of this age and the age to come, and says the two will be very different. It's not simply an extension of this life with some desired improvements. What happens after death is a transformation that we can't even imagine.
Pondering these questions may help us get to our desired destination. Yet more essential than what the future holds for us is how we live the present.
The Kaddish, a beautiful Jewish prayer to help mourners, says, Birth is a beginning and death a destination. But life is a journey, a sacred pilgrimage from birth to death and to life everlasting.
"Life is a journey" - best traveled by living it most fully and giving life to others as well. In the words of St. Irenaeus, The glory of God is the human person fully alive.
Similarly, Dag Hammarskjold wrote, We die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined by the steady radiance renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond reason.
We live most fully when we are "illumined" by the Holy Mystery!
Some, instead of living fully today, focus on tomorrow - the hereafter, hoping to enter heaven, often pictured as a glorified resort. There's nothing wrong with that image, as long as we realize it's just an image.
In today's gospel, Jesus makes it clear that life after death is not just an extension of this life. He speaks of this age and the age to come, and says the two will be very different. It's not simply an extension of this life with some desired improvements. What happens after death is a transformation that we can't even imagine.
Often at a Funeral Mass,
I will make reference to the caterpillar, whose life does not end when it is
entombed in a chrysalis, but is transformed into a beautiful butterfly. We are now beautiful caterpillars. The butterflies we will become we can only imagine.
And what of our image of God? Sometimes we imagine God in human terms...who loves, rewards or punishes as we do. But God is not simply a "super-person". God is not like us but a lot better. No. God is far, far beyond anything you and I can imagine. All we can do is use symbols. God is beyond any category we know.
That's what we mean in religious language when we say that God is a "mystery." A "mystery of faith" is not like a puzzle we haven't figured out yet. A "mystery" is so great, so different, that we can't fit it into our brain. It's beyond us. Glorious. Wonderful.
St. Thomas Aquinas was probably the greatest theologian Christianity has ever had. He wrote volumes and volumes of very deep theology and these have endured 800 years since his death. In his later years, Thomas had some sort of mystical experience and afterward he said, Everything I've written...is just straw... just straw.
We have to be careful not to trivialize God, sell God short. We can use images, but we have to know that they are images. We picture God as father, mother, shepherd, judge, rock...but these are only images. One of the mistakes fundamentalists make is to reduce God to the size of our own thoughts. They act as if they know all about God. They take everything literally, with no room for symbols or metaphor.
Now, the wonder of it all is that God, who is so far beyond our understanding, connects with us. That is the greatest mystery of all, something we simply cannot understand - how God, who is totally outside everything we know...connects with us. But God does. God connects with us. And through God's grace, we can connect with God. We, limited though we are, can experience God.
God not only "illumines" us but somehow makes us sons and daughters. We have God's life in us. It is unimaginable. It would be like giving birth to a flower as a daughter...to a bird as a son...and it's way beyond that. Yet, God is present to us, within us, around us. God relates to us, loves us, cares for us.
And what of our image of God? Sometimes we imagine God in human terms...who loves, rewards or punishes as we do. But God is not simply a "super-person". God is not like us but a lot better. No. God is far, far beyond anything you and I can imagine. All we can do is use symbols. God is beyond any category we know.
That's what we mean in religious language when we say that God is a "mystery." A "mystery of faith" is not like a puzzle we haven't figured out yet. A "mystery" is so great, so different, that we can't fit it into our brain. It's beyond us. Glorious. Wonderful.
St. Thomas Aquinas was probably the greatest theologian Christianity has ever had. He wrote volumes and volumes of very deep theology and these have endured 800 years since his death. In his later years, Thomas had some sort of mystical experience and afterward he said, Everything I've written...is just straw... just straw.
We have to be careful not to trivialize God, sell God short. We can use images, but we have to know that they are images. We picture God as father, mother, shepherd, judge, rock...but these are only images. One of the mistakes fundamentalists make is to reduce God to the size of our own thoughts. They act as if they know all about God. They take everything literally, with no room for symbols or metaphor.
Now, the wonder of it all is that God, who is so far beyond our understanding, connects with us. That is the greatest mystery of all, something we simply cannot understand - how God, who is totally outside everything we know...connects with us. But God does. God connects with us. And through God's grace, we can connect with God. We, limited though we are, can experience God.
God not only "illumines" us but somehow makes us sons and daughters. We have God's life in us. It is unimaginable. It would be like giving birth to a flower as a daughter...to a bird as a son...and it's way beyond that. Yet, God is present to us, within us, around us. God relates to us, loves us, cares for us.
More than seeking to understand the mystery of God, we are meant to enjoy and celebrate the wonder and awe of God. Don't always try to picture God. Just be with God
and open yourself to God being with you. Breathe God’s breath. Experience the
wonder and awe of it. Enjoy it! Enjoy the journey!
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