Homily Easter 4B: Heaven-bound, through Word, Worship and Works

Homily for Easter – 4^th Sunday Year B 2021

Acts 4:8-12; 1 John 3:1-2; John 10:11-18m

Introduction

Last week, I received a Facebook message from a friend, asking what happens to our loved ones when they die.  Can they see us?  Can they see God?

Today’s rather short second reading from John’s First letter, one of my favourite passages, answers some of my friend’s questions, because it speaks about heaven.  And so, for today’s homily, I would like us to reflect on heaven, because this is a reality that we should all think about.  For as Benjamin Franklin reminded us, two things are certain in life, death and taxes.  I am sorry that Jesus has little to say about taxes, but he has a lot to say about what happens to us after we die.

Scripture and Theology

St. John begins by reminding us of our privileged status as Christians, saying: “Beloved: See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God.”  There are two ways we are the children of God.

First, we are his children by virtue of being human. By creating us, God has shared his life with us; he has given us an immortal soul, something that plants and animals don’t have.  But what John is talking about here is being children of God in a second sense, by virtue of our baptism.  Baptism makes us redeemed children of God, candidates for admission to heaven.  Baptism removes our original sin that blocks our entry into heaven and gives us new life in the Holy Spirit that grants us admission.  That is why John can boast about the great love that the Father has bestowed on us by sending Jesus Christ to be our Saviour, to pave our way into heaven, and thus make us God’s children.

St. John then goes on to explain that our new status as God’s children puts us at odds with the world.  And why?  He says: “The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.”  If we are like Jesus Christ, living like he taught us in the Beatitudes, in the great commandments of love, in caring for each other, the world will not like us, because it does not know Jesus and his ways.  That is a struggle we have to be ready to endure, for as Our Lord himself taught, we are in this world, but we are not of this world.  We are temporary citizens of the City of Man, but future permanent residents of the City of God in heaven.

After describing our current state of being both God’s special children and at the same time misfits in this world, John then goes on to explain that “what we shall be has not yet been revealed.”  And that makes sense. Like my friend asked me, we do not know what heaven will be like.  Nobody has gone to heaven and returned to tell us what to expect.  We have questions. We want to know.

Fortunately for us, John answers some of our questions, gives us a picture of what heaven might be like, saying, “We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”  Did you hear that? In heaven we shall be like God, for we shall see God as he is.

But what does it mean to be like God?  What does it mean to see God as he is?  To understand what being like God is, we can return to Genesis, to the point before Adam and Eve sinned, when God made human beings in his image and likeness.  Before sin entered the world, we were like God, we shared his life perfectly.  But then sin ruined that divine image and likeness, stained that image, even if it did not eliminate it completely.  Thanks to the great love of God, he sent his Son to remove that stain and restores the image back to its original holiness, to that state of being perfectly in God’s image and likeness.  After completing our earthly journey, if we have kept sin at a distance, or if after sinning we have confessed our sins and been reconciled to God, we shall be restored to that original image and likeness of God.  That is why in heaven, we shall be like God.

And as for seeing God as he is, that follows from the very fact that we shall have left this earthly state of imperfection.  You see right now we see God only through mediators: through the appearances of the consecrated host and the precious Blood, through the sacraments, through our priests, through the Church, through our brothers and sisters and many other signs.  We need these mediators on this side of heaven, a world of material things; but there, in the world of pure spirit, we shall see God as he is.  I often remind my seminarian students that in heaven, our work as priests will not be needed, since you will be able to see God as he is.  Father Amal/Mike and I will be out of a job, and will have to file for unemployment.  But that is okay, because we will all be able to see God as he is.

You might remember that on the second Sunday of Lent, we reflected on the sneak-peek into what heaven would be like, an experience that the Lord showed to the three disciples, Peter, James and John, when he took them up the mountain at the transfiguration.  So, in a way, John is writing about what he had seen partially, seeing God as he is, seeing Jesus in his glory.  Now he shares that experience with us, assuring us that the same destiny awaits us.

Christian Life

I know we think about heaven for our loved ones who have died, like my friend did.  But do we think about heaven for ourselves?  How much do we desire heaven for ourselves when our time comes?  Do we really want to enter heaven?

There is a mistaken belief among us some Christians, even among some Catholics, that we are all guaranteed entrance into heaven and so we don’t need to worry about it.  You hear this mistaken belief in the way some people talk about their departed ones, especially at funerals or shortly thereafter, as if they are already in heaven.  I know grandma was really a nice lady, but can we say with certainty that she is in heaven?  We hope she is in heaven; we pray that she is in heaven, but aren’t we being overly presumptuous when we declare that in fact she is in heaven?  Even the Pope does not do that; he waits for the whole process of canonization to declare as saints people like Mother Teresa, Pope John Paul II and others who lived saintly lives.  We must therefore pray for our deceased ones that God may forgive their sins and admit them into heaven.

And as for us who are still here on earth, and can do something about our eternal destiny, we must follow Jesus, who tells us that he is the Way to eternal life.  We must do those things he said we need to do, to gain entrance into eternal life, like believing in his Word, celebrating the sacraments, and living by the commandments.  We should work for heaven, and not assume that our invitation is locked in already, like the football team that underestimates its opponent, and then in an upset gets beaten.  We must play the game that leads to heaven, for all four quarters of the game, giving ourselves completely.

Conclusion

And so, staying with the sports metaphor, we must always keep our eye on the ball; and for us the ball is heaven, which John has described so marvellously for us, as the place where we shall be like God, where we shall see God as he is.  Heaven must be the address we enter into the GPS of our life’s journey, so that it can lead us there, step by step.

This summer, I will make the 24-hour trip to visit my family in Uganda, changing airports and planes a couple of times, having to wear a mask all the time.  But I will endure all these things, because of the destination, because I am looking forward to seeing my mother after a year and a half.

May we similarly endure the hardships of this world, fight the battle against our opponent, by doing the holy Trinity of three W’s, which are: believing in God’s Word, celebrating Worship, and doing good Works.  And we will do all these things, hoping that they will lead us to the beauty and joy of heaven, where we shall be like God, we shall see God as he is, for ever and ever without end.