It seems like everyone is tense and anxious
about the election.
But by Tuesday night it should all be over.
Then, hopefully, we’ll be past the worst
election campaign season
We’ll ever have to experience.
Tens of millions of us will then heave a
sigh of relief.
Feeling that disaster has been averted.
But other tens of millions of us will feel
that the disaster has struck.
They’ll remain anxious, and perhaps deeply
bitter.
So, the next few years will be full of talk
of impeachment, prosecutions,
Law suits, investigations, and stubborn
opposition.
Exaggeration and outright lies will
continue to work against Truth.
Rancorous division will continue to work
against cooperation.
And against the common good.
Such is life in one of the greatest, wealthiest,
most free, most blessed
Countries in the history of this world.
We’ll continue to have many good things,
many causes for joy.
But this cloud of division will continue to
darken our future.
By the standards of this world,
Maybe just
being under a cloud is not so bad.
We see so many other countries where things
are far worse.
Where the divisions have already festered
into oppression, poverty,
Misery, destruction, war and death.
Thank God we can look past all that to some
ultimate Good News.
In the end, there’s a perfect world awaiting us.
After death, there’s resurrection to new
life in that perfect world.
And we can hope to share in it.
Where did we get this idea that there’s life
after death—
A perfect world after this one?
How can we know that?
Only through revelation from God.
Ultimately, we get the greatest detail and
greatest assurance from Jesus.
But the Jews believed in resurrection long
before Jesus came.
As we see in the Old Testament story of the
mother and her seven sons. They accept torture and death, confident that they
will be resurrected.
But not all Jews believed.
The Sadducees didn’t believe.
So they dispute it with their question
about the widow
And her long procession of dying husbands.
But Jesus firmly states that there is indeed
a resurrection.
And that knowledge of it extended back to at
least 1400 BC with Moses.
Clearly, Catholics believe there is a
resurrection.
It’s right there in our creed.
A fundamental tenet of our beliefs.
In our Nicene
Creed we merely say we believe in
The resurrection of the dead
and the life of the world to come.
We get more specific in the Apostles’ Creed where we say
We believe in the
resurrection of the body.
What will that after-life be like?
Jesus adds some detail in today’s Gospel.
He says that after the resurrection we’ll
no longer marry.
He says we’ll be like angels.
Maybe that’s where some people get the idea
that we’ll be angels.
But that’s not what he said.
He said we’ll be like angels—in that we’ll never die again.
Elsewhere, Jesus has revealed more.
Unlike angels, we’ll have bodies—glorified
bodies, perfect bodies.
Bodies like the one he had after his
resurrection.
A body that could eat and drink but didn’t
need to.
A body that could appear and disappear,
pass through walls and doors.
Move instantly from place to place.
Beam me up!
Jesus also told us there are many rooms in
his Father’s house.
That he’s gone to prepare a place for us.
That we should store up treasures in Heaven.
And many other things that have shaped our
vision of the next world.
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If we’re going to obsess over an election.
Let it be not over Campaign 2016 and the
election of our people to office.
Yes, getting good leaders in office is important—very important.
But there’s an even more important
election.
God’s election of all our people to eternal
life.
Where our
people are: ourselves, our families,
Our friends, our neighbors.
And also our enemies, and the whole world.
We do
need to work to fix this world.
And if we work in truth, love of God and neighbor,
and mercy—
We will
help to fix it.
And by those same acts, we’ll also fulfill
our service as God’s elect.
And, with His mercy, fix our place in the
next world.
One way to stay focused on that next world
is to step back from this one.
To frequently take time out and imagine
what Heaven will be like.
Using the clues that we’ve been given.
We should make our images as magnificent as
we can envision.
Throwing in everything we can think of to create
total joy and happiness.
Meeting God, understanding everything,
Reuniting with all our loved ones.
We should see Heaven as a real place.
A place we’d do everything we possibly can
to reach.
Because it is a real place.
The details of our imaginings will prove to
be inaccurate—but that’s fine.
Because no matter how grandly we’ve
imagined, we’ll have understated.
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