Saturday, November 2, 2024
The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed
(All Souls Day)
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Heaven helps us
All day yesterday and today, the Day of the Dead brings out penitents, souls and saints, family friends and of course a number of dressed up party-ers, ready to celebrate after the sun goes down. All are welcome to this unregulated holiday, and even the spirits from beyond the grave have their cup of wine.
The souls of the just are in the hands of God, and no torment shall touch them. They seemed to be dead, and their passing away was thought an affliction, their going forth from us, utter destruction. But they are in peace.
What does go on after we die? Wouldn’t you like to know?
Wouldn’t I like to know?
Chastised a little, they shall be greatly blessed, because God tried them and found them worthy of himself. As gold in the furnace, He proved them.
I am overwhelmed sometimes by admonitions that I live my life well, that if I don’t live my life well (and that of course requires definition), I will go to hell. Well, hell! On the other hand I am called to salvation not by works but by grace. Whether I’m circumcised, whether I eat the pork or fail to eat fish on Fridays, none of this matters. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free (Galatians 5).
I helped my friend work on her spring schedule at Parkland College and University of Illinois. There are prerequisites for anything worth taking. She hasn’t declared a major, she doesn’t want to make that decision yet. It takes a little work, preferably with a guiding advisor, to find classes she will enjoy and benefit from.
What prerequisites pave the road to heaven? Good intentions? Appropriate worship? A quiet mind listening at least at times to God? Loving my neighbor as myself? Act justly, love mercy, walk humbly with my God?
Those who trust in him shall understand truth, and the faithful shall abide with him in love. Grace and mercy are with his holy ones.
Is there even really a heaven actually? I would like to just wait and see. Pascal’s wager, famous for centuries, assumed that we couldn’t lose if we bet on heaven. Believe and relax. If you’re wrong and nothing is out there beyond the corner, no problem. But if you’re right, then the heavenly gates open wide.
Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life. If we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him … Come, you who are blessed by my Father; inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
I know that my Redeemer liveth. Job said that. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. David said that. God provides the power of faith in Job, in David, in me, in many. Does he retain that gift or remove it from … others? I am fascinated by the questions, but not anxious to settle on answers. If a Lebanese baby is killed before he can be baptized, will he go to heaven? Do angels dance on the tip of a pin? If I vote wrong on Tuesday (which of course requires definition), will I be sent to some purgatory to right my thoughts, my feelings, and my ways?
Even though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
God’s comfort is often uncomfortable. When I pray for patience, I am assailed by circumstances that are impossible to tolerate. What patience did you mean, God asks in the middle of the night? Someone said we are born into a world that requires us to reclaim the right to suffer. Oh, I think that is very true.
Light at the end of the tunnel? Of course.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me, all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Faith (enabled by God) comes first, then come the deeds of my life, outpourings of that primary, ultimate relationship and friendship with my Father. I do settle into this solution of the unending question. Jesus affirms my decision, at least in John 6.
This is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.
(Wisdom 3, Psalm 23, Romans 6, Matthew 25, John 6)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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