Gone to the Father

The saint listed on the Church calendar today is St Hilary or Arles.

He was a bishop in Gaul, now France, in the 5^th Century.

The best available information is that he was born in the year 401 and died May 5, 449.

That's why his feast day is celebrated today.

Unlike our celebrations of worldly heroes—like Washington's Birthday and Lincoln's Birthday—

We usually celebrate our saintly heroes on their death-days.

The date of their birth into the next life, their entry into Heaven.

That's not surprising when you think about it.

We're commemorating these people because they made it to sainthood.

They made it to Heaven.

So the anniversary of their entry is a most appropriate time to honor them.

If we can keep our priorities in proper order, our entry into Heaven is our chief goal,

And the key date of our existence.

But with all the busy-ness of daily life, it's easy to have that slip out of focus.

The World is Too Much With Us.

Even more so today than when William Wordsworth coined that phrase 200 years ago.

We can be pulled back to conscious awareness of our top priority by a thought, by a message.

Something we read or hear, or remember.

Remembering a saint or a famous person, or a loved one who has died.

Perhaps on an anniversary.

We're jolted back to priorities most strongly and painfully when a loved one dies.

We have to deal with our grief, our personal loss.

Our sympathy for other loved ones who may be suffering even more through that same loss.

We can take heart from the assurances and encouragements that Jesus has given us.

Like his words in today's Gospel passage.

If you loved me you would rejoice that I am going to the Father.

Rejoicing at the loss of a loved one is not often easy or immediate.

It's easier if we see that person was suffering greatly and is now at peace.

That peace that Jesus offers in today's Gospel.

It helps if they were very old—and suffering.

It helps if we believe that person was saintly and must surely have gone on to Heaven.

It helps if we have strong faith and hope in God's extravagant mercy.

And so we get through it.

We overcome the grief and sorrow and uncertainty.

We think about the purpose of this life, we think about the next life.

We adjust our own focus a bit.

Away from this world and to the Heaven that awaits us.

Perhaps we even rejoice.

Tuesday 5th Week of Easter

Jn 14:27-31      Read this Scripture @usccb.org