Joyful Expectation

This Advent, as we journey with Mary to Bethlehem, and she approaches her time to give birth, we become part of her family.  Together with Our Lady we wait in joyful expectation of her son’s birth. This is the meaning of Advent. It is a joyful time of preparation and waiting for the coming of the Messiah, the King of David.

Our first reading from Isaiah (Isaiah 11:1–10) is hopefully familiar to those who have been through Confirmation as it is our source for the sevenfold gifts of the Spirit: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord (cf. Isaiah 11:2). Notice, however, that even when discussing the fear of the Lord, Isaiah tells that the Spirit of Lord resting on us will bring us joy or delight. Isaiah tells us, “And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.” We are not to think of God looking down on us disapprovingly with a big stick saying, “be good, or else.”

God desires to impart his good news to us. He offers us happiness and delight. To receive this spirit-filled joy, however, we must allow our hearts to be prepared and to accompany him as disciples. This requires our cooperation with his grace. 

God calls each one of us be good for goodness’ sake. We must believe that God loves us and desires to share with us what is best for each one of us. It is only through God’s goodness that we discover true happiness and fulfillment, and genuine freedom. This comes about as the Holy Spirit changes from us within.

To understand our Gospel passage (Matthew 3:1–12) we must enter the world of the Bible. Today when we hear the word ‘Gospel’, we immediately think of the four “Gospels” of the New Testament and when we say ‘Scriptures’ we think of a Bible with 72 books. At the time of Jesus, the clever idea of creating a stack of rectangular pages and then sewing them together on the spine, is something that was still unknown for centuries. Our reading from Isaiah would have been on a scroll 145 feet long!

Fragments of the Great Isaiah Scroll from Qumran

When the earliest Christians preached the good news or the “gospel” about Jesus Christ, they did so from the Old Testament Scriptures. The very term “preaching the good news” comes from the important second part of Isaiah 40–66 (especially 40:9; 52:7; 60:6; 61:1). The early Christians often used Scripture texts concerning the good news about Jesus, citing from Isaiah and the Psalms.

The second part of Isaiah (40–66) begins by talking a about a variety of ‘servants’ who will call all nations and peoples to return to Jerusalem and to submit to God’s reign and rule or kingdom on the earth. Soon, however Isaiah moves on to discuss one special Suffering Servant (Isaiah 42:1–4; 49:1–6; 50:4–11; and 52:13–53:12). Later in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus is the Suffering Servant who “took away our infirmities and bore our diseases” (Matt 8:17 citing Isa 53:4). Matthew identifies the mission of Jesus with Isaiah 42:1–4 (Matthew 12:17–21).

Even our first reading from Isaiah 11 refers in part to the coming Messiah, who is “a shoot … from the stump of Jesse” upon whom the Spirit of the Lord rests. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus identifies his mission with the sprit-filled Servant found in Isaiah 61 (Luke 4:14-30). Later in his mission as the Lord’s Servant, Jesus shares the promise of the Holy Spirit with his all his disciples (Acts 1:5, 2:4).

With this background in mind, Matthew tells us that a final messenger or forerunner will come to prepare the way for the Messiah. “John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the desert of Judea and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” (Matthew 3:1). John’s message of repentance is the same message that Jesus will preach at the beginning of his ministry (Matthew 4:17).

The ministry of John the Baptist was foretold in Isaiah 40:3–5,

It was of him that the prophet Isaiah had spoken when he said:

A voice of one crying out in the desert,
Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths (3:3).

John the Baptist’s clothing and strange eating behavior identified him as a prophet like Elijah. The Catechism notes, “St. John the Baptist is the Lord’s immediate precursor or forerunner, sent to prepare his way. “Prophet of the Most High,” John surpasses all the prophets, of whom he is the last.” (CCC 523). John the Baptist’s birth and martyrdom are part of the Advent Liturgy’s presentation of ancient joyful expectancy of the Messiah (CCC 524).

John administered a baptism of repentance in which people acknowledged their sins and began to live a new life. Although perhaps experiencing a similar the process of conversion, Christian Baptism instituted by Jesus, was completely different from John’s earlier baptism of repentance. John acknowledges this in our Gospel reading. He notes that Jesus will baptize the Holy Spirit and fire (3:11). In Christian Baptism, we receive the grace of the forgiveness of sins through Jesus sacrifice on the cross (Acts 2:38), by the Holy Spirit and are joined to Christ and made part of his body (Galatians 3:27; Roman 6:5) and are adopted into his family.

Once again, the season of Advent is a time to celebrate the ancient family traditions of Jesus and recount the story of salvation history found in Sacred Scripture. Let us prayerfully join once again in Mary’s joyful expectation of the birth of the Messiah. We must prepare our hearts to receive him.

As we do so, let us pray with the church,

Lord our God,
help us to prepare for the coming of Christ your Son.
May he find us waiting, eager in joyful prayer.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.– Amen.

Advent is for Vigilance in Prayer

Our Gospel readings this Sunday (Matthew 24:37-44) urge us to begin our Advent with a particular attitude. On this First Sunday of Advent, our readings lead us to contemplate an attitude of humble vigilance towards our Lord. We must ‘stay awake,’ ‘be prepared,’ (Matthew 24:42, 44) and ‘make no provision for the desires of the flesh’ (Romans 13:14). St Paul tells us to “throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light” (Romans 13:14).

Is Advent then a penitential season? Following the reforms of the liturgy at Second Vatican Council, the General Norms (39) of the Roman Missal remind us that Advent is a period of "devout and expectant delight." Strictly speaking, it is not a penitential season but rather a season of joyful anticipation. In this season, the church recounts the whole salvation history of Christ, beginning in the Old Testament, until Christ’s incarnation leads us all to Easter.

Advent comes for the Latin adventus. Christ’s Advent or ‘coming’ has a dual meaning; referring to the first coming of Christ in the incarnation, and later to the second coming of Christ at the end of the age.

If we focused purely on Christ’s second coming in judgment, we might view this season in a negative light and miss the joy implied in this message.

Advent is a season of joyful anticipation preparing our hearts for the coming of Christ, first in his Nativity, and then his second coming at the end of time.

Advent has a different character than Lent. Perhaps an apt metaphor for Lent would be training for an athletic competition. We place ourselves under a discipline to improve our performance. We might say, no pain no gain.

Unlike this, the metaphor for Advent is maternity. Yes, pregnancy involves watchful discipline and a degree of difficulty but the goal of new life makes this a time of joyful anticipation. During this season the church invites us to journey toward Christ's Nativity and to practice watchful anticipation, but always with a sense of joy.

Instead of being primarily a season of penance like Lent, it is a season of illumination and deeper conversion. The church invites us to join the family of Christ and celebrate his saving history leading up to the Nativity. The means of conversion is prayerful watching, and learning the family history of Christ in Sacred Scripture.

We need to go deeper in our understanding of the spirituality of this season. We are not waiting in lugubrious penance for the return of our Lord in judgment. We are not fearfully thinking “be good or else.” We are instead preparing our hearts for conversion, and for a definitive encounter with God who became a man. This conversion leads to the joy of the Spirit.

It is only thorough our understanding of the Incarnation that our hearts are prepared for his second coming. If we are not careful, it is easy to be distracted by the proverbial “holly jolly Christmas” celebrations which seem to start earlier every year.

The celebration of Advent invites us to enter deeply and prayerfully into the saving history of Christ offered in the readings. It is by first meditating on the Incarnation and Nativity that we look forward to and prepare our hearts and minds for Christ’s Second Coming in glory. The readings for Advent weave together both aspects of Christs two fold coming. By doing so we experience devout and expectant delight.

The discipline of preparing our hearts is our true penance. This involves prayer, reading Scripture and being truly present in the midst of the liturgy. Jesus in our Gospel readings calls us to have vigilance.

This theme of vigilance in prayer leads us to consider some difficulties people may face in their prayer life.

Distractions

The first is distractions in our prayer life. A certain amount of distraction in our prayer is inevitable. Some of the greatest saints who taught on prayer, such as St Teresa of Avila, faced almost constant distraction in her prayer. St Teresa always took the Scripture or some spiritual book with her in her prayer to help her concentrate. One time honored method of prayer involves reading from Scripture , then talking to God about what you have read, then spending a few moments in silence listening. In order to pray longer, the cycle is repeated over again.

Dryness

At times we can experience spiritual dryness in out prayer, where we fell like our “heart is separated from God, with no taste for thoughts, memories, and feelings, even spiritual ones” (CCC 2731). The Lord may allow this from time to time to test our resolve, or it may be due to some areas of our life that we have not fully submitted to God. We may require a deeper conversion.

Lack of Faith

The Catechism note, “the most common yet most hidden temptation is our lack of faith” (CCC 2732). It is not that we directly doubt the truths of the faith, but we allow our preferences and cares to vie for our attention. We chose to pursue what we think are other more pressing matters. We tell ourselves, “I’m too busy, don’t have time to pray.” Or we chose to reward ourselves with some other activity which we think will bring us more joy or distraction.

Acedia or Lukewarmness

Finally, spiritual writers have identified a kind of spiritual depression that can occur when someone is very lax in the practice of their faith. They spiral down into a state where they lack vigilance, and become carelessness of heart (CCC 2733). Both Jesus words in our Gospel and the reading from St Paul warn us against this problem.

Jesus compares his second coming to that of the time of Noah. At the time of Noah, people were living life and we not prepared. They did not know until the flood came and carried them all away (Matthew 24:39).

Many people live life assuming they have many years to come to make amends, but none of us knows the hour of our death. It may well be sooner than we think, and it may be unexpected. We need to live each day as though it were our last, and to be ready at any time to meet our Lord.

Jesus tells us to ‘stay awake’ and ‘to be prepared!’ Advent is a season of conversion, which calls each one of us to a deeper journey with our Lord. Come Lord Jesus!

 

Is Advent a Penitential Season?

​

Is Advent penitential? On first blush the answer seems to be “no”! 

In the history of the development of the liturgy, the focus of the early church was first on Easter and a solemn preparation for this feast we now call Lent. This makes complete sense. If we do not understand the suffering, death and resurrection into glory of Christ, then in the words of St Paul, “if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:17). Nothing could be more important to our faith than this.

Liturgically, the Advent-Christmas-Epiphany season was a “Johnny come lately.”  Advent (Latin adventus) is the translation of the Greek, parousia (παρουσία) or “coming”. In Matthew, Jesus says, “So will it be also at the coming (parousia) of the Son of Man” (Matthew 24:39). Parousia usually refers to Christ’s own, “Messianic Advent in glory to judge the world at the end of this age” (BAGD 781).[1]  

In church tradition this term has taken on a dual meaning, referring to the first Advent of Christ in his nativity, and then to his second coming at the end of time. Matias Augé notes that, “In the ancient Roman sacramentaries, the term [adventus] is used both for the coming of the Son of God in the flesh, the Adventus secundum carnem, and his coming at the end of time.”[2]

Advent is a season of joyful anticipation preparing our hearts for the coming of Christ, first in his Nativity, and then his second coming at the end of time.

Advent has a different character than Lent. Perhaps an apt metaphor for Lent would be training for an athletic competition. We place ourselves under a discipline to improve our performance. We might say, no pain no gain.

Unlike this, the metaphor for Advent is maternity. Yes, pregnancy involves watchful discipline and a degree of difficulty but the goal of new life makes this a time of joyful anticipation. During this season the church invites us to journey toward Christ's Nativity and to practice watchful anticipation, but always with a sense of joy.

Instead of being primarily a season of penance like Lent, it is a season of illumination and deeper conversion. The church invites us to join the family of Christ and celebrate his saving history leading up to the Nativity. The means of conversion is prayerful watching, and learning the family history of Christ in Sacred Scripture.

Everything in Christ’s life from his birth to his eventual ascension into heaven in glory is part of the mystery of salvation (CCC 512). As the Catechism reminds us, “Though already present in his Church, Christ’s reign is nevertheless yet to be fulfilled 'with power and great glory' by the king’s return to earth” (CCC 671). There is an already-but-not-yet tension in the unfolding of Christ’s kingdom upon the earth.

Following the reforms of the liturgy at Second Vatican Council, the General Norms of the Roman Missal remind us that Advent is a period of devout and expectant delight,

39. Advent has a twofold character, for it is a time of preparation for the Solemnities of Christmas, in which the First Coming of the Son of God to humanity is remembered, and likewise a time when, by remembrance of this, minds and hearts are led to look forward to Christ’s Second Coming at the end of time. For these two reasons, Advent is a period of devout and expectant delight.[3]

Advent is a season of joyful anticipation. In this season, the church recounts the whole salvation history of Christ, beginning in the Old Testament, until Christ’s incarnation leads us all to Easter. Only then, by remembrance of this, do we look forward and prepare our hearts and minds in hope of Christ’s Second Coming in glory. The readings for Advent weave together both aspects of Christs two fold coming.

It is not difficult to find Catholics who miss the joy implied in this message. We need to go deeper in our understanding of the spirituality of this season. We are not waiting in lugubrious penance for the return of our Lord in judgment. We are not fearfully thinking “be good or else.” We are instead preparing our hearts for conversion, and for a definitive encounter with God who became a man. This conversion leads to the joy of the Spirit.

We are not saving ourselves through our works of penance. In love, God took the initiative. As St Paul notes, “But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). This is why we can offer him “devout and expectant delight.” We must receive the joy of the Gospel.

Having said this, a prayerful meditation on the salvation history of Christ must indeed lead us to ongoing conversion as we grow in deeper surrender to our Lord. And yet we need to admit that many people are distracted by the proverbial “holly jolly Christmas” celebrations which seem to start earlier every year.  

The question is what is the most effective way to promote the joy of the Gospel?

Pope Francis has rightly complained about Christians who are joyless pickle faced “sourpusses” (Evangelii Gaudium, 85) who succeed in turning people away from the truth by their negative attitudes. Is being grumpy about how early someone put up his or her Christmas tree, really an essential truth of the Gospel?

If various spiritual disciplines and penances help you to focus more on the salvation history of Christ, and lead you to a deeper anticipation of his coming, they receive that blessing. It would seem to me; however, that encouraging people to read prayerfully the salvation story of Christ found in Scriptures would be infinitely more powerful.

Is advent a penitential season? Maybe, to a degree. It would be better to say it is it is a season of conversion, awakening, and joyful anticipation.

Matias Augé notes,

The second coming of Christ, a recurrent theme especially in the first weeks of Advent, is closely connected with the first coming. The certainty of the coming of Christ in the flesh encourages us as we wait for his glorious final appearance, when the messianic promises will be finally and completely fulfilled. In fact, in the birth of Jesus the ancient promises are fulfilled, and the way to eternal salvation is opened. [4]

This Advent, as we join in the joyful celebration of the Incarnation, let this celebration be the lenses through which we see the return of our Lord in judgment at his Parousia. In faith, hope and charity, may the work begun in his first coming be our life, our strength and our joy. In faith, we surrender to him. In joyful hope, we anticipate him, and his love will not disappoint us.

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[1] William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 781.

[2] Matias Augé, “The Liturgical Year in the Roman Rite,” in Liturgical Time and Space, ed. Anscar J. Chupungco, trans. David Cotter, vol. V, Handbook for Liturgical Studies (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2000), 201.

[3] The Roman Missal: Renewed by Decree of the Most Holy Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, Promulgated by Authority of Pope Paul VI and Revised at the Direction of Pope John Paul II, Third Typical Edition (Washington D.C.: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2011), 114.

[4] Matias Augé, Ibid., 327–328.

“You will be hated by all because of my name”

In our Gospel reading for this Sunday (Luke 21:5-19) Jesus gives a prophecy concerning the destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple that took place later in 70 AD.

In popular Jewish understanding, there was an expectation of “a prophet like Moses” (Deuteronomy 18:15-19) who would appear at the end of the age. Jesus as a type of New Moses is a theme in the Gospels, especially in Matthew. Jesus' words are taken seriously, and the crowds ask him, "Teacher, when will this happen?”

Jesus warns the crowd “not be deceived.” He warns, "…many will come in my name, saying, 'I am he,' and 'The time has come.'” He tells them, “Do not follow them!” Prayer and discernment are necessary.

Jesus' answer, however, does not seem to be limited to the destruction of Jerusalem. Later in this same chapter, Jesus speaks more specifically about fleeing Jerusalem (Luke 21:20-24) but then moves on to describe a later time when the world and the powers of heaven will be shaken (Luke 25-28). In the book of Revelation, we see a series of prophecies concerning the return of Christ at the end of time, and these prophecies cycle and repeat each time getting more intense.

Jesus' words apply both to the imminent crisis in Jerusalem, and in a fuller way to the final persecution or ‘the great tribulation’ at the end of time. Jesus tells us in Matthew's gospel, this will be a “great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will be” (Matthew 24:21; Cf. Revelation 7:14).

The belief that Christians will face this final “great tribulation” is a matter of faith. Yet, how are we to respond to this teaching?

Some of you will no doubt remember the children’s fairy tale Chicken Little. The main character, Chicken Little (Henny Penny in some versions) is a hen on a farm, who is hit on the head with an acorn. Puzzled by this, she concludes that ‘the sky is falling.’ Chicken Little then runs around the farm sounding the alarm, “The sky is falling! The sky is falling!” The moral of this tale is that we should not believe everything we are told.

Many times in history, popular teachers have predicted that the end is near. Some have argued that we can use the calendar for our predictions, such as the end of the first millennium, or the end of the second millennium. Perhaps the sign will be some crisis involving wars, or world powers. Perhaps some other unpredicted modern event such as the so-called Y2K crisis in the year 2000.

I knew a priest right before the Y2K event who combined fears about this crisis with the teachings of unapproved apparitions, and rumors of an approaching comet, to predict the end was near. He was literally buying guns and gold to prepare. I knew another family who sold their family home and moved to a remote cabin in the wilderness. Of course, Y2K turned out to be very disappointing event. The lights did not even flicker.

In our gospel reading, Jesus warns us, “When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for such things must happen first, but it will not immediately be the end” (Luke 21:9). He then promises us that in the midst of life threatening persecution and martyrdom, “I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute”(21:15).

This is a special grace for this moment in time. In ordinary times, St. Peter reminds us, “Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for the reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence” (1 Peter 3:15-16).

It seems that in many periods of history, persecution is the norm. As Jesus reminds us, “You will be hated by all because of my name” (Luke 21:17, Cf. John 15:18-20). Yet as Tertullian reminded his persecutors in the second century, “Yet, your tortures accomplish nothing, though each is more refined than the last; rather, they are an enticement to our religion. We become more numerous every time we are hewn down by you: the blood of Christians is seed ” (Apology 50.13)[1]

Many Christians in our world today still face persecution for their faith. Yet we only rarely hear about this in our news headlines. One application of today’s reading would be to pray for persecuted Christians around the world. Especially for those Christians in Africa, India and Asia. While we stand in solidarity with them, we should also realize that this is a tremendous time of grace, resulting in many new conversions.

The second thing we can take to heart, is the fact that we should expect opposition for our faith. As our nation rapidly moves towards a post-Christian culture, we should not be surprised that our culture rejects our views as outdated and even harmful. As Jesus reminded his disciples, “If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first (John 15:18). St. Paul notes, “For we are the aroma of Christ for God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to the latter an odor of death that leads to death, to the former an odor of life that leads to life” (2 Corinthians 2:15–16). To those who have hardened their hearts, our message is “the odor of death.”

 

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^[1] [semen est sanguis Christianorum] Tertullian and Minucius Felix, Apologetical Works and Octavius, ed. Roy Joseph Deferrari, trans. Rudolph Arbesmann, Emily Joseph Daly, and Edwin A. Quain, vol. 10, The Fathers of the Church (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 1950), 125.

Heaven Will Not Be Boring!

Pharisees and scribes frequently confront Jesus in the Gospels, but in this Gospel passage (Luke 20:27-38), it is the Sadducees question him. The Sadducees were the Palestinian aristocracy who took the name of their party from Zadok, the high priest at the time of David and of Solomon (2 Samuel 8:17; 1 Kings 1:34).

The Jewish historian Josephus tells us that the Sadducees claimed that the soul perished along with the body at death. St. Luke describes the Sadducees as, “those who deny that there is a resurrection” (Luke 20:27, cf. Acts 23:7-8). The Sadducees limited sacred scripture to first five books of the Bible, and denied the existence of angels (Acts 23:7–8).

In an attempt to make Jesus look foolish, the Sadducees confront Jesus with a dilemma story, intended to disprove the resurrection. According to Jewish law, if a married man died childless, his brother was required to marry his widow and to produce a male child. “The firstborn son she bears shall continue the name of the deceased brother” (Deuteronomy 25:6).

This type of Levirate marriage was a popular as means of caring for widows and securing property rights. In the ancient world, couples would not engage in courtship and decide for themselves whom to marry. Instead, their families arranged the marriage. Marriage had more to do with inheritance, and kinship bonds, than with mutual love.

Using the laws of Levirate marriage, the Sadducees present an absurd dilemma to trap Jesus. What would happen if a certain widow married a second time to her bother-in-law, and then he in turn died childless? In the Sadducees story, the widow eventually marries seven brothers, each of whom dies childless. Finally, the woman herself dies.

Attempting to make their point, the Sadducees ask, “Now at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be? For all seven had been married to her.” The Sadducee’s believe this line of argument proves that the resurrection is a ludicrous idea.

Jesus counters by first pointing out that the dead who rise will “neither marry nor are given in marriage.” Again, reaching across different cultures, the primary purpose of marriage in the ancient world was the production of children. The dead who rise will no longer die, so Jesus says they will be ‘like’ or ‘equal to’ the angels who also never die and have no need to produce children to perpetuate their kind.

What does Jesus mean when he says the resurrected children of God are like angels? In popular culture, it is common to tell someone who has recently lost a love one that they “have an angel in heaven.” God created angels as beings of pure spirit. Unlike angels, humans have a body and a soul. 

Although death temporarily separates from our bodies from our eternal soul, this is not our final state. At the resurrection, our souls are joined again to eternal glorified bodies.

Although our resurrected bodies will be very different from our present bodies (1 Corinthians 15:35–58), we will still spend eternity in bodily existence. Jesus says we will be like angels because we will never die, not because we become angels. Since we will no longer die, marriage is not necessary in our heavenly existence.

Jesus then uses Scripture to answer the Sadducees. He could have quoted Daniel 12:2-3, which is a clear reference to the resurrection, but since the Sadducees especially reverenced the traditions of Moses, Jesus makes his point from Exodus. In the narrative at the burning bush the Lord says, “I am the God of Abraham . . . of Isaac . . . and of Jacob.” (Exodus 3:2–6). Jesus says God “is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive” (Luke 20:38).

What does this encounter with Jesus mean to us today? First, many people in our modern world treat religious doctrine and dogma, as an infringement on their personal right to choose whatever beliefs they want. Instead, they simply seek to be ‘spiritual’ in their own way. Does it really matter to Jesus what we believe about the resurrection? Based on this Gospel encounter with Jesus, we would have to say; “Yes, the resurrection matters to Jesus.” In fact, each Sunday in the creed we recite, “I look forward to the resurrection of the dead.”

In fact St. Paul notes that if Christ is not raised from the dead, our faith is in vain (1 Corinthians 15:16-18). Without the resurrection our faith is a fraud and meaningless! The resurrection teaches us three central things about our faith. First the resurrection demonstrates God’s love for us. Secondly, it is through the resurrection we have eternal life, and finally the resurrection holds us each accountability before God’s judgment.

While each one of us by nature craves the feeling of belonging and meaningful connection with others, many people are left feeling empty and lonely. Christ took the initiative to fulfill this need in an ultimate way by in sharing his love and relationship with us. We are not only joined to Christ, but in Christ to his body, the church. The communion of saints ensures belonging and meaningful connection with all Christians. He will not leave us lonely and unconnected. St. Paul writes, “But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

Not only is the resurrection a proof of God’s love it also the means of eternal life for us. Jesus humbled himself taking on human flesh so that he might become “obedient to death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8) and after this to rise to newness of life and to share that life with us in baptism (Romans 6:4).

Finally, if death is simply the end of our existence and there is nothing else, then there is no accountability. Without the resurrection, who cares! We confess in the creed, “He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.” Love is always our starting place, and even though we were each chosen for adoption as God’s children before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4), but we are still held accountable for our own freely chosen actions in this world. We are held accountable for our cooperation with God's grace.

In truth, nothing could be more central to our faith than Christ rising from the dead. God reveals his love to us through the resurrection, and his power to save us is made manifest on the cross and brought to fulfillment in his resurrection and ascension into Heaven. 

The resurrection is also our source of motivation here in this life. We can be motivated to act by means of duty, but love will move us to a higher level of understanding, to selfless sacrifice. We are called to imitate the love of Christ. Christ's own love is our motivation.

“For the love of Christ impels us, once we have come to the conviction that one died for all; therefore, all have died. . . . so that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised” (2 Corinthians 5:14–15).

While the saving power of the resurrection is the central truth of this Gospel passage, many people find Jesus words puzzling. In a modern sense, they are triggered by his comment, “the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.” Failing from lack of imagination; some people fear this means that heaven will somehow be boring. Are we to believe that heaven will lack one of the most cherished pleasures of our earthly existence?

Will our heavenly existence leave out some important earthly pleasures? We must remember that the God who created the earth and all that is in it and declared it to be “very good” (Genesis 1:31) is the same God who created Heaven.

We must broaden our imagination. Simply being in the presence of God will be the fulfillment of every desire. We will not be missing any earthly thing. St. John tells us in the new heaven and the new earth God “will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain” (Revelation 21:4).

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI comments on this modern fear;

But then the question arises: do we really want this—to live eternally? Perhaps many people reject the faith today simply because they do not find the prospect of eternal life attractive. What they desire is not eternal life at all, but this present life, for which faith in eternal life seems something of an impediment. (Spe Salvi 10).

Talking about spiritual pleasures may still leave some people unconvinced. Yet must we view Heaven as having no continuity to our present life? Is heaven a kind of eternal choir practice among the clouds?

First it must be recalled that we will have bodily existence in Heaven and if we take hints from Jesus resurrected appearance, we may still eat and have a social existence (Luke 24:42). There is another interesting note in the book of Revelation were we are told about the heavenly New Jerusalem. St. John tells us that the kings of the earth will bring in their treasure into the heavenly city and that “the treasure and wealth of the nations will be brought there” (Revelation 21:26).

Rather than suggesting that God will make all things new (in complete discontinuity with this present life), I think this suggests that he will make new all things. Rather than beginning creation over with a blank slate, God will renew or remake creation with a continuity to what is holy and good and true in the previous creation. Our belief that God created us by sharing his own divine essence with us, strongly suggest that continuity is not only possible, but necessary. 

Obviously, there will not be complete continuity, but I don’t think we need to think of eternity as having no correspondence to our current earthly realty. In the end, I am completely certain of one thing, Heaven will not be boring!