Homilies

Reflection for Low Sunday

Where’s heaven?
I know, it doesn’t look like it, but right here.

“With great power the apostles bore witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus”

It is a typical question children may ask, where is heaven? Truthfully, we all wonder too, where is heaven?

Scripture tells us that God created the universe in six days. Of course, the universe is what we can see and perceive. As human beings, and people who live in a culture where science has helped us so much, we may think that we could somehow analyze how things work and find that place, that part of matter and energy where we might find God and His dwelling.

If we believe, and we should, that God created the heavens and the earth we know that God’s dwelling exists apart from what we can perceive with senses and science. Heaven exists outside the dimensions of both space and time.

God’s revelation in scripture gives us glimpses into what heaven will be like. Jesus told us that He will prepare a place for us. He tells us that it will be like a great banquet. In heaven there will be no sadness, only joy, and it will be a place of light. We also know, that based on what Thomas and the other apostles and disciples experienced in meeting Jesus after the resurrection that our bodies will be imperishable, we will be glorious, powerful, and spiritual.

The problem, of course, is that we tend to perceive heaven as a different and separate place we have to get to. This can be dangerous since we may focus all our energy on getting there to the detriment of building God’s kingdom here as we are asked to do.

God and His heavenly kingdom permeate time and space. God’s kingdom – heaven – is all around us and in us. One day, and we pray soon, they will come together. We will be joined to God, the dead will be raised, and we will live together in an entirely new place, as told in the Book of Revelation 21:1: Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared.

How do we get there? Through repentance from sin and being regenerated in Him. We must accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Then, by doing the things necessary to build the kingdom of God.

Heaven is here, all around us. To see it, to best get there, we must work to bring people to faith in Jesus. Then, working together, we must do our all to show what the kingdom will be like – by our charity, by love for all.

Like the apostles, that’s how we must bear witness to the resurrection.