The Glorious Splendor of Your Kingdom
August 24, 2012
Feast of Saint Bartholomew, Apostle
By Melanie Rigney
Your
friends make known, O Lord, the glorious splendor of your Kingdom. (Psalms
145:12)
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on
the Son of Man.” (John 1:51)
Piety
Lord,
I know Your home will be beautiful beyond my imagination. Help me to feel
worthy of the place You have prepared for me.
Study
What’s your idea of
heaven? In today’s Gospel reading, John paints a visual picture of angels
alighting on Jesus. In the first reading, the writer talks of Jerusalem
descending from above, gleaming and radiant.
The thing is, we
honestly have no idea what it’ll be like—beyond the greatest gift of all, being
with God. We don’t know what we’ll be like physically. We don’t know for sure
that we’ll reconnect with everyone who has gone before us. We trust in God.
I wonder, though,
what God will see when we arrive. Will He see a litany of our sins or virtues,
all actions or inaction? He’s already aware of, but summarized for Him in some
way, because He’s a busy guy? Will He see flawed people who did their best in a
flawed world traveled by demons? Or will none of that matter, because if we get
to heaven, we’ve already been through purgatory and emerged clean and pure?
People say they’re
going to have a lot of questions for God when they get to heaven, why did He
let this or that happen, what was the meaning of this or that. I suspect He’ll
have a few questions for us as well, even though He already knows the answers,
questions like “How much did you love?” and “What did you do to bring souls to
the Kingdom?” And if we’re not happy with our answers in this world, I doubt
he’ll be happy with in the next. Not angry, just sad. And disappointed we
didn’t focus more on those questions than on trying to figure out what heaven
would be like.
Action
Meditate on what
questions God has for you—and your answers.
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