Isaiah 64:3
Dear Christian Family,
As we look forward to this New Year 2012, it is a good time to recall what we know about the home God has prepared for those who love him – “Heaven”.
We know that Jesus in his resurrected, glorified body, ascended to heaven, and tradition speaks to us of Our Lady’s assumption, being taken up “body and soul” to the glory of heaven. The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us that Christian hope comes from Jesus and his preaching ministry, and looks to the promise of heaven, specifically in Jesus’ preaching and proclamation of the beatitudes. The “beatitudes raise our hope toward heaven as the new promised land.” Indeed, the beatitudes are called “the heart of Jesus’ preaching”, marking fulfillment of the promise to Abraham and his progeny of a territory, but to the Kingdom of Heaven!
If we take a good look at St. Francis, we’d see that he lived and practiced the beatitudes, even to seeing and hailing the face of Jesus, the face of God, in the most feared and rejected people of his world – the very ill and the poor. At the same time, St. Francis lived and experienced that which all the baptized share: by God’s grace, and surely with the sacraments, especially in the Holy Eucharist, we share a little bit of Heaven, even while we move in hope toward eternity.
The images Holy Scripture has provided regarding the new Promised Land include:
• life
• light
• peace
• wedding feast
• wine of the kingdom
• the Father’s house
• the heavenly Jerusalem
• Paradise!
Yet as in St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, the prophet Isaiah’s caution about describing heaven is noted: “no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.” Isa. 64:3
I feel very strongly about this message because this past year so many of our loved ones have passed to the heavenly home, the Father’s house.
Connie (our 2nd Vice-President) lost her mother this morning; my sister went last month; we lost Lina (our intercessor) in October; Grace and Esther’s sister Teresa two weeks ago; Denise (our treasurer) lost her mother four weeks ago; Fran (our secretary) lost her best friend one month ago; even Sydney (our dog) left three weeks ago.
Yes, we will miss all of them and who knows who else will leave this coming year, but one thing we have assured is our promise that our God made to Abraham: our assurance to those of us who love him and keep his commandments. Let us help those around us to find the way to our Father’s house, by our examples, our love, and our faith in God!
Let us be fishermen, like St. Andrew and say “Come and See” what the Lord is all about! We have found the Messiah!
Your Sister in Christ Jesus,
Stella Davis
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Spiritual Warfare
