Scripture for meditation: 1 Corinthians 2:9
"Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it so much as dawned on man what God has prepared for those who love Him."
Christ tells us: John 17:24
"Father, all these you gave me, I would have in my company where I am, to see this glory of mine, which is your gift to me, because of the love you bore me before the world began."
Leo J. Trese, in the book Every Man's Road to Heaven, pictures our entrance into heaven:
Even by great leaps of the imagination, it is hard to conceive what it will be like to look upon God. He is infinitely lovable. This means that He will be irresistible. The very sight of Him will siphon love out of us as the heart of a tornado sucks the water from a lake over which it passes. Up from our very roots, up from our figurative toes love will rush out of us to God....At present we are like birds in a cage, who have no idea of their capacity for loving. There is no human being who is capable of calling forth our total capacity for loving, of completely exhausting our power to love. God, however, is precisely such a Being. To use the only term that seems to fit, we will explode with love as we look upon Him who is infinitely good, infinitely lovable.
Prayer: Jesus, you became an example of humility, obedience and patience, and preceded me on the way of life bearing Your Cross. Grant that, inflamed with Your love, I may cheerfully take upon myself the sweet yoke of Your Gospel together with the mortification of the Cross and follow You as a true disciple so that I may be united with you in heaven. Amen Prayers for All Occasions, 2009, Basilica of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
My thoughts: I remember standing in St. Peter's in Rome one day, looking up at the magnificent ceiling. Two angels were pulling back a curtain, and inside the "window" was a picture of Mary and the baby Jesus. I remember thinking that they were giving me a glimpse, a peek, into heaven. We get little glimpses of heaven throughout our lives, but nothing completes us. As St. Paul says, we cannot even imagine what God has prepared for us. Christ says He wants every single one of us with Him to see His glory, and Leo Trese feels we will explode with love when we do. Our prayer reminds us that the way to heaven is the Way of the Cross, yet we gladly bear the burden when we dare to dream of what awaits us in heaven.
Your prayer to God: It is time to realize that we must stop looking for the perfect person, place or thing that will make us happy here on earth, and realize that it only exists in heaven. Let us take time today to dream of our eternal home, and bask in the glow of the knowledge that we are working our way back to God! Then let us ask Him to give us the grace necessary to complete the trek.
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