By Fr. Victor Feltes
“We are courageous, and we would rather leave the body and go home to the Lord.” That is what St. Paul writes about himself and the Christians at Corinth in our second reading. But is this true for us today? Would we rather leave the body and go home to the Lord?
Imagine if you could have endless more years of this life on earth. Would you wish for that? Pondering such a wish you would be wise to reflect upon the burdens of bad health. The coming of such crosses in the later years of life makes many people more open to the next life. Ron endured poor health but he is freed from that burden now.
But suppose you could live an endless life on earth free from all illness and pain; the next thing you might consider is the prospect of outliving everybody you know now, as well as everyone you would ever know. Even with our well-founded hope for Heaven, where all friends of God will be reunited, the temporary separation between us and our dearly departed causes sadness in us who remain behind. It is okay to mourn at Ron’s passing, though we do ‘not grieve like those who have no hope,’ for we have hope in him who said “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me.”
But imagine if each person on earth were granted pain-free immortality; the next thing to consider is what life in that world would be like. After Adam and Eve sinned at the tree they were deprived of the fruit of another—the Tree of Life—lest they eat of it and live forever in their unhappy fallen state. Even if scientists were to develop a treatment to eradicate all pain and all death, moral sickness would remain untreated in many human souls. Endless life without Christian conversion would create a hell of moral evils on earth. Ron’s love for Jesus and our Catholic faith led to his deep devotion to the Holy Eucharist and St. Paul’s Parish. He hungered and thirsted for holiness, and our holy religion helped him to go deeper, change, and grow with God in his grace.
Now suppose if everyone on earth were forever freed from pain and death and sin, to live peacefully together on earth forever—what would life in that world be like? Ron delighted in many things in our world. Beyond family and friends, there were monster trucks and parade floats, old cars, new movies, and countless good things more. But after living in our world a few decades, which is far less time than millennia, we can think to ourselves, “These things are nice but is this really all there is?” Every heart contains a God-shaped hole which can only be fully satisfied by the infinite beauty, goodness, and love of the Holy Trinity. Understanding this changes how we see our lives in this world (which we must not cling to) and our future deaths (which we must not grasp at) until the Lord finally calls us home to be with him. Jesus tells his disciples, “I am going to prepare a place for you… [and] take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.”
“Therefore,” St. Paul writes, “we aspire to please him, whether we are at home or away. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense, according to what he did in the body, whether good or evil.” Pray for Ron’s soul, that he may now enjoy the endless bliss of Heaven. And let Jesus Christ be the good and loving Lord of your life so that you may enter eternal life, for ‘no one comes to the Father except through him.’
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