The second reading for Sunday Mass this past weekend contains one of my favorite passages in the New Testament. I often quote it because it “blows my mind!” In St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians he writes, “What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him, this God has revealed to us through the Holy Spirit.” Or put more colloquially, we can’t come close to imagining what the eternal life of heaven will be like for those who love God. Or even more casually, we don’t have a clue!
To be sure, St. Paul is not exaggerating when he says this. For indeed, if we had a glimpse of heaven, the beatific (blessed) vision of God would astound us. For no one can see the face of God and live. The human person, weakened by original sin – though forgiven in baptism, journeys through life in this world with a diminished sense of God and the things of God. Thus, we can easily become enamored with the things of this world and satisfied with a mediocre relationship with the Blessed Trinity, and not even that. Because “it hasn’t dawned on us” what God has ready for those who love him, we might at best count God among our friends, or perhaps as mere an acquaintance.
This past Sunday, we also read this from the Book of Sirach, “If you choose you can keep the commandments, they will save you; if you trust in God, you too shall live;…Before man are life and death, good and evil, whichever he chooses shall be given him. Immense is the wisdom of the Lord; he is mighty in power, and all-seeing…. No one does he command to act unjustly, to none does he give license to sin.” In complete freedom we choose to sin because we cannot fully grasp this side of heaven, what awaits the reward of the just.
Now most of us believe that heaven will be great – a place of peace, free from pain and suffering. Some perhaps reduce it to like being eternally at their favorite golf course, restaurant, beach resort or with their social group. Well, if that’s all we can imagine about heaven, we truly don’t have a clue! For heaven will be an intimate and ceaseless communion with the Triune God, with the communion of saints and with all who receive the reward of eternal life. It will be more than “what eye has seen, or ear has heard or what has entered into the human heart.” There we will be joy and delight like we have never known and, as we profess in the creed, “his Kingdom will have no end.”
The sacred author of the Book of Sirach states clearly, “If you choose you can keep the commandments; they will save you.” Before we consider moral choices, how many choices would you guess that you make in a day, or just in an hour, or in the course of even one minute? In a single moment we may choose to ignore the phone and let it go to voicemail, or check the phone for a text message, or ignore all the previous emails in our inbox, or make a wise crack about a co-worker, to surpass the speed limit or get another cup of coffee or get back to the task at hand. All these are choices, and so is the conscious effort to keep the commandments.
This week we enter into the Lenten season on Ash Wednesday, hearing the Lord’s call to conversion. During these days of penance and prayer we recognize how far our hearts and minds have wandered from the Lord, how many choices we have made to ignore the Holy Spirit, failing to respond to those in need around us, putting off again what we should have taken care of days ago, or more. Well, if we are constantly making choices, what governs all that activity going on within us? Is there anything that regulates our thoughts, words and actions?
Currently, the Winter Olympics are underway in northern Italy. Those who compete in the Olympics get to do so because they have worked long and hard at training for it. As the saying goes, “they have kept their eyes on the prize.” They remind us of the fact that if we want something bad enough, we go after it with a passion. The goal, the prize orders everything else we do. We need the Lenten season because we have not kept our eyes on the prize of eternal life. Most of us are not seriously pursuing the reward of eternal life with a passion. We might ask ourselves, would anyone else pursue the reward of eternal life based on how I appear to be pursuing it?
On Ash Wednesday we will hear from the Lord through these words from the prophet Joel, “Even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart…” This return is a matter of desire. It is an invitation to fix our eyes on the prize of heaven, to allow our imaginations to spend some time each day considering “what God has prepared for those who love him.” During the days ahead, ask the Lord to give you little glimpses of heaven. Pray for the grace to want it as much as you want to breathe. Ask the Lord to transform your mind and heart to make eternal life in heaven your deepest desire and your greatest goal. This Lent, contemplate entering to an eternal experience that will blow your mind and ask God for the desire to pursue what he himself desires to share with you – intimate and ceaseless union with him. This Lenten season, let’s “get after it!”
