IC I:22; 28^th Sunday of Year A, 2002

There is an axiom that says that we can=t understand things beyond the ability of our imagination. In other words, we have to get some image in our head when we are trying to understand something new. Thus, a good teacher will often sayBin trying to get over his pointB>it=s something like this=Cand then follows a simile. We see our good Teacher Jesus employing this very technique in this passage of Scripture. How can our narrow human minds comprehend what heavenBa supernatural realityBis? Our Lord begins by saying: AThe kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son.@ Wedding feasts are sumptuous celebrations (as anyone who foots the bill for them knows quite well): lots of food, drink, laughing, music, and the social joys of kith and kin. Heaven is >something like that=. But it is to be noted that this is only a simile, a way of getting an image into our minds so that we might advance from this image of a happy time at a wedding to understanding heaven as a place of surpassing happiness. We certainly would be stupid to conclude from reading this Gospel that heaven consists of material goods rather than the greater, spiritual ones. AThe kingdom of God does not mean food and drink,@ says Saint Paul, Abut righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.@ This lesson of the superiority of heaven over earth, of the supernatural over the natural, of spiritual joys over sensual ones is central to Christian hope. Again to quote Paul, AIf for this life only we have hoped for Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied.@ (1 Co 15:19).

Christians have been ridiculed for believing and hoping for the deferred rewards of the life to come: Apie in the sky@ as they say. A wretched philosopher once castigated our hopes because it pacified us with a faith in a future benefit and made us be content with weakness, poverty and the general misery of human life on earth. According to that point of view, heaven or hell would be this life only; there is nothing beyond.

But another criticism of Christianity comes not from a charge of vain hopes, but from our failure to act convincingly as if we believed in heaven and hell. Such would be the accusation brought against usBand not without complete justificationBby the Moslems today. They are sickened by our hypocrisy in professing belief in God but living in a most corrupt, most debauched society, replete with immorality: one created by the so-called Christianized western world. Do we really believe that if we do not curb our lusts that we will be forever damned? Do we truly hold that avariceBthe love of moneyBis the root of all evil? Do we close our eyes to sinful things and chasten our thoughts and curb our desires? Do we, in fact, have faith in the invisible world at all: do we know that there is a God in heaven who sees all and weighs all our deeds? Do we recognize that our Guardian Angels are ever at our side, observing, encouraging, correcting, guiding? Do we really believe in the God of the Eucharistic Host? If the answer to these is >yes= then where=s the proof? Talk is cheap! Deeds prove our belief. And we are doing a bad job of convincing others that we have conviction about what we say we believe. And thus we bring the Gospel of Christ into bad repute by our scandalous example. (Calculate well, by the way, that this is a strong point for the >other side= in our present conflict with Islam. They=re sickened by our hypocrisy.)

When I think of Saint Paul writing this letter to the Philippians, writing from prison! in Rome, and saying AI know how to live in humble circumstances..of going hungry..of being in need@ and then we adds, but AI can do all things in Him who strengthens me@ and so, AGod will fully supply whatever you need@Bhearing that unflappable confidence in God=s goodness in Paul=s miserable circumstances and hearing of his great charity for others all the while puts me to shame. Paul is a convincing believer. The Imitation of Christ follows Paul in true Christian spirit where it says, Araise your eyes to the riches of heaven and you will see that all the riches of this world are as nothing.@ Happiness doesn=t consist in an abundance of this world=s goods: we only need a modest share in material things to live well on earth. The more spiritual we want to become, the more bitter does this present life seem. In fact, we can rightly say that our spiritual life is even impeded, hindered by clinging to the stuff of earthly existence. Here again is the Imitation: AThe Saints of God and all the devoted friends of Christ paid little heed to bodily pleasures, nor to prosperity in this life, for all their hopes and aims were directed towards the good things that are eternal.@ As so, weBun-saintlyBnever make progress, we keep falling back into our sins, we areBto borrow the graphic and revolting image of the bibleBlike dogs returning to their vomit. We do not make that decisive turn to become religious people; we are never converted from our enslavement to our pleasures and our securities in this life. God will deal with us exactly according to the way we have chosen to live, and not according to any pretense that we may imagine: having our cake and eating it too, as the saying has it.

Let=s get the lesson of Jesus right and not play >make believe= but believe indeed. People who are religious, people who are real Christians are the happiest people of all, happy here and now, as well as there and later. They have God in their minds, they carry Christ in their hearts, and they live disciplined lives. (There is no happiness without discipline.) This is the gentle yoke of Christ; this is His Gospel. Let=s not be fooled by the deceits of the Evil One and think that we can be Christians and act as if it were all a fantasy. God and the devil take us very seriously; it=s only foolish humanity that thinks that we can say one thing and do something else.