32d Sunday. The Happy Priest on Heaven: Is There Life after Life?

In this Sunday's gospel narrative Jesus gives us a clear glimpse into the mystery of eternity

Life confined to the boundaries of time and space without the promise of eternal life would be cruel and unbearable to live.  Without the certainty of an eternal paradise, the trials and tribulations of this present life would have no meaning or purpose.  The judgments of time will be corrected by the judgments of eternity.  The injustices of this world will be replaced by the justice of the world to come.  The tears shed now will be replaced by the joy lived forever in eternal life. There is a Heaven and we need to get there.  What are you willing to do to get there? 

P align=justify>CORPUS CHRISTI, TX (Catholic Online) - Can science prove that there is life after life?  There is increasing medical evidence that people who experience clinical death and return after being resuscitated do experience inexplicable phenomena that point to life after life. 

Medical reports speak about patients having out-of-body experiences, walking toward a bright light, seeing and communicating with deceased family and friends, and feeling embraced by unconditional love.  After their encounters these patients lose all fear of dying.  Having been deeply affected by their experiences,  they now  live changed lives.  

Diane Corcoran, Ph.D., RN of Durham, North Carolina is one of several nurses around the world studying the phenomenon of near-death experiences.  Many medical professionals who are atheists or agnostics attempt to discredit the events reported by patients as hallucinations, but many questions remain unanswered.  Corcoran gives as an example the near-death event experienced by an eight year old boy. 

The boy had just undergone open heart surgery and for one brief moment his heart stopped beating.  After the surgery was successfully completed, the boy told his family about a beautiful journey he had taken toward a bright light. 

He gave vivid descriptions of relatives that he had met during the journey. Though these relatives had died long before he was born, he was able to say how they died and where they were buried. 

In this Sunday's gospel narrative Jesus gives us a clear glimpse into the mystery of eternity.  "The children of this age marry and remarry; but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.  They can no longer die, for they are like angels; and they are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise" (Luke 20: 34-37).

What is Heaven?  Heaven has been defined for us in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.  "Those who die in God's grace and friendship and are perfectly purified live for ever with Christ. They are like God for ever, for they see him as He is, face to face.  This perfect life with the Most Holy Trinity - this communion of life and love with the Trinity, with the Virgin Mary, the angels and all the blessed - is called Heaven. Heaven is the ultimate end and fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness" (1023 - 1024).

Without a doubt, Heaven is a place difficult to describe.  We cannot begin to understand it because Heaven belongs to the mystery of our faith.

In the Gospels Jesus speaks of this mystery through images.  He calls it the kingdom, a place of life, light and peace.  He refers to it as wedding feast, the Father's house, the heavenly Jerusalem and paradise.  St. Paul tells us that "no eye has seen, nor ear has heard, nor the heart of man conceived what God has prepared for those who love him" (1 Corinthians 2: 9).

St. Paul's awe is echoed in the words of a child taking an evening walk with her father. Wonderingly, she looked up at the stars and exclaimed; "Oh, Daddy, if the wrong side of heaven is so beautiful, what must the right side be!" 

Life confined to the boundaries of time and space without the promise of eternal life would be cruel and unbearable to live.  Without the certainty of an eternal paradise, the trials and tribulations of this present life would have no meaning or purpose. 

The judgments of time will be corrected by the judgments of eternity.  The injustices of this world will be replaced by the justice of the world to come.  The tears shed now will be replaced by the joy lived forever in eternal life. 

The martyrs described in today's reading from the Second Book of Maccabees, are numbered in the long list of heroic men and women who throughout the history of salvation were able to sustain unbearable trials precisely because they were certain of a place called Heaven.  They were able to persevere and resist sin because their love for the next life was greater than their love for this present life. 

Too many of our contemporaries are like the Sadducees of this Sunday's gospel passage.  They scoff at the possibility of life beyond life and continue to lose themselves through destructive behaviors that will only lead them to eternal condemnation if they do not change the present course of their lives. 

There is a Heaven and we need to get there.  What are you willing to do to get there? 

"Oh if you had a relishing of these things, and would allow them to sink deeply into your heart, how could you dare to complain even once?  Should not all labors gladly be endured for the joys everlasting?  It is not a small matter to lose or gain the kingdom of God. 
Lift up your face therefore to Heaven.  Behold!  I and all my saints with me, who have had great conflicts in this world now rejoice, are comforted, are now secure, are now at rest.  And they shall remain with me for all eternity in the kingdom of my Father" (Imitation of Christ, III, 47). 

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Father James Farfaglia, the Happy Priest, is the pastor of Saint Helena of the True Cross of Jesus Catholic Church in Corpus Christi, Texas.  Father has a hard hitting blog called Illegitimi non carborundum.  He has also published a book called Man to Man: A Real Priest Speaks to Real Men about Marriage, Sexuality and Family Life.  You can contact Father at fjficthus@gmail.com.  You can click here for the audio podcast of this Sunday homily.

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