Our belief in the Resurrection does not paint a picture of what heaven is like, but it does provide us with some pretty clear truths. Faith in the Resurrection is not just looking forward to the conclusion of a story that we haven’t gotten to the end of yet. Christ reveals the Resurrection to us so that our way of living in this world might be transformed. When we meditate on the Resurrection, we ought to ask ourselves, “if life will be changed at the resurrection, what is the eternal value of my current way of life?” There will be no more marriage, because there will be no more death. There will be no more computers or screens. There will be no toil or necessity in work. There will be no more education, schools, policies, diplomacy or politics. There will no longer be night-time or sleep. There will no longer be a need to explain, or prove, or convince anyone of anything. We will no longer be Americans. We will no longer be homosexual or heterosexual. If we can understand the current conditions of human life as factors that limit human life rather than as what defines it and gives it meaning, we can already begin to enjoy – through hope – the resurrection.
Tuesday of the Thirty-Third Week in Ordinary Time
JEROME:
There certainly is much truth in a certain saying of a philosopher, “Every rich man is either wicked or the heir of wickedness.” That is why the Lord and Savior says that it is difficult for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Someone may raise the objection, “How did wealthy Zacchaeus enter the kingdom of heaven?” He gave away his wealth and immediately replaced it with the riches of the heavenly kingdom. The Lord and Savior did not say that the rich would not enter the kingdom of heaven but that they will enter with difficulty.
Friday of the Thirty-Second Week in Ordinary Time
AUGUSTINE:
In all our trials, each one must take care not to be overcome or to come down from a spiritual height to a carnal life. He who had progressed should not look back by turning toward the past or failing to reach out to the future. This is true of every trial. How much greater care must be prescribed in a trial such as that foretold for the city as “Such as has not been from the beginning, neither will be”? How much more this is true for that final tribulation which is to come on the world, that is, the church spread through the whole world?