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Sisters and brothers. When we began this series, we began reflecting in part on the creation and the creation of human persons. And one of the things that we said about human persons is that we're born with a longing, as it were, a hole in our heart.
Father Ron Rolheiser and his great work, “The Holy Longing”, describes it is that that holy longing for something more that stays with us for our lives.
Saint Augustine said it best with I am restless, O Lord, until I rest in thee. That our lives have a trajectory that goes beyond, and going beyond includes going beyond our death. We have an innate sense within us that there's something more to life that goes beyond death. And so the Church teaches us about four last things. We use a fancy word, eschatology, in it, and it means those last things.
So death, judgment, heaven and hell. And so we'd like to spend a few moments talking about those death is a reality for us that we have to undergo.
In the immediacy of our death, one of the things that happens is our ability to continue to change is stopped. And so that's the moment in which we have the particular judgment of Christ. Have we lived a life of merit? Have we lived a life of virtue?
And in reality, Christ encounters each of us and knows the struggles of our lives. He knows the stories of our lives. He knows the fallings, and he knows the goodness of our lives as well.
The particular judgment then has three pathways to it.
One is the pathway of purgatory. Purgatory we can think of as, those of us who are still carrying baggage from our life. it's having to let go of that baggage.
One of the ways that purgatory was often envisioned for people was the notion of fire.
Fire is a pretty good idea if what we think of is the burning of shame. Because what happens in Purgatory is God is able to see, and we see that God sees our entire story. All of those things that we conveniently hidden in our lives and kept from others, come to light, and we have to let go of those in order to receive the love that Christ intends for us.
And that's the path from Purgatory to Heaven. Some are welcomed into Heaven immediately for the greatest living that they have had, or for someone who is reconciled right before the moment of death would be received right into Heaven. The judgment would be welcome, my good and faithful servant.
And there in Heaven, we can question what Heaven is like. One of the things that we understand is certainly we're in contact with who? The Blessed Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, also the Virgin Mary, the Communion of Saints that we've talked about before, those who have made their way to Heaven and have been welcomed into Heaven by God. That group is their family members and friends who are indeed among the saints.
And so we can see Heaven not only is a place of personal joy, but a place of social and communal joy as well. That's why the Church uses the image as well of the final Jerusalem, as the image of a city, an urban environment, not a solitary monk cell, but a city. A city in which joy and celebration can take place.
We have Heaven. We have Purgatory. Then we've got to talk about Hell. Hell is the place of damnation. And what does that mean when we talk about sin, we talk about sin as an alienation or breaking of our relationship with God in such a way that it kills that relationship. Hell, then, would be sisters and brothers, that place of total alienation from God and from others, from the cosmos. What a terrible and lonely place that would be. Not a place of community but a place of isolation.
The Church does indeed say that hell exists. One of the things very important for us is the Church has never declared any single individual to be in Hell. It's an important challenge for us because we recognize that lots of people we think of as having made their way to Heaven. We should be very cautious about thinking that we can judge who indeed has made it to Hell because the mercy of God is so great, and the power of love to turn hearts is so profound.
Included in this is our Resurrection of the Body that, ultimately, heaven isn't a place just for souls. We believe in two judgments. The first judgment at death is really about the judgment of our soul and the disposition of our soul. As we wait, the general judgment comes at the Resurrection, and the Resurrection is when each of us are brought back in bodily form, a glorified body. What the connection is, we don't know. But there's a material connection.
The identity we have on Earth is the identity we have in Heaven but in a glorified way. But it's specific bodily, because how do we express our love for one another as human beings, bodily as well to be able to touch, to kiss, to talk, to communicate. Our bodies are important.
Finally, we go back to that image of Jerusalem. The idea oftentimes that we have is, is that we go up to Heaven. The Church's image in the Book of Revelation is when Heaven is wedded to Earth, when the New Jerusalem comes down to Earth, and it is Earth and Earth, it is transformed into the glorious mode of existence that is Heaven. What a wonderful thing for us to be able to reflect on.
Saint Theresa, when she was dying, said these two lines: "I am dying, and I am entering eternal life." What a wonderful invitation that is for us, sisters and brothers, to live with the understanding, the Memento Mori, the reality of knowing that we will die, and living our life in such a way that we are prepared for God's love, God's mercy and eternal joy, the joy and the mercy and the love that will indeed be the final renewal.
Reflection Questions:
How does the concept of holy longing shape your understanding of life's purpose and trajectory?
What insights do the "four last things"—death, judgment, Heaven, and Hell—offer for living a more intentional and virtuous life?
In what ways does the belief in the resurrection of the body influence your view of human identity and relationships in eternity?