WITH the recent celebration of the
Solemnity of the
Ascension of the Lord, we have to strongly remind ourselves that our
thoughts and desires should somehow start and end with heaven.
This much, at least St. Paul tells us in very clear terms:
“Set your hearts on heavenly things, not the things that are on
earth.” (Col 3)
It’s not that we ignore or disdain the earthly things. The
most obvious and undeniable reality is that we are here on earth, and
we just cannot and should not be indifferent to its affairs.
What we are rather reminded of is that we learn how to
relate everything to heaven, and not get entangled with our merely
earthly and temporal affairs. Everything is meant to start and end
with God who is the Creator of everything and the very foundation of
reality.
Our problem that we often do not realize is that we live
our life as if everything is just a matter of our concerns here.
There’s hardly any reference to heaven. We need to wake up from this
lethargy, make the necessary changes in our attitude and actuations,
and get to conforming our whole life to this truth of our faith.
We have been told that our worldly and temporal affairs
only have a relative value. They are only means and occasions for us
to work out our duty of reaching our ultimate end which is heaven, or
our eternal life with God, our Creator and Father.
What has absolute value is to be with God, with whom we
can start to be with while here on earth and going about our temporal
concerns. As the Letter to the Hebrews tells us, “We have not here a
lasting city. But we seek one that is to come.” (13,14)
We need to disabuse ourselves from the thinking, often
unarticulated but is quite ingrained in us and in our culture, that we
can build a permanent city here on earth. We rather have to be clear
about this basic truth—the ‘terra firma’ is not in this world; it is
in heaven.
But how can we relate everything to heaven? First of all,
by exercising our faith that tells us that being our Creator, God is
always with us and is actively governing everything through his
providence.
With the revelation of his mind and will already fully
done in Christ and perpetuated till the end of time through his
Church, we already know what it takes to relate things to him and to
heaven.
We are asked to pray, to be generous with sacrifices, to
study and thoroughly know the doctrine of our faith, and to realize
that our earthly concerns always have some connection with God and
with heaven that we need to discover and to apply ourselves to.
We have to learn to undertake a continuing struggle, both
interiorly and exteriorly, both spiritually and materially, so that
while being immersed in the things of this world, we don’t lose sight
of our real goal which is heaven, a state that transcends our material
and temporal dimensions.
It’s truly a big challenge for us to learn how to be both
in the world and yet to have our mind and heart in heaven. St.
Augustine gives us an idea of how to go about this task. It’s a matter
of growing in our desire for it.
“Such is our Christian life,” he said. “By desiring heaven
we exercise the powers of our soul. Now this exercise will be
effective only to the extent that we free ourselves from desires
leading to infatuation with this world.”
How important, therefore, it is to always rectify our
intentions! That is, we should see to it that whatever we may doing,
even if in the end, what we do could be considered wrong or deficient
in some sense, should be done out of faith and love for God and for
others.
This is to live out what St. Paul once said: “Whether you
eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do, do all to the glory of God.”
(1 Cor 10,31) It’s in this way that we can somehow live with the great
mystery of heaven. This is how we can set our hearts on heaven.
Let’s remember that heaven is so mysterious that “eye has
not seen nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what
things God has prepared for those who love him.” (1 Cor 2,9)
We have to learn to live with the mystery of heaven now.
Ascension of the Lord, we have to strongly remind ourselves that our
thoughts and desires should somehow start and end with heaven.
This much, at least St. Paul tells us in very clear terms:
“Set your hearts on heavenly things, not the things that are on
earth.” (Col 3)
It’s not that we ignore or disdain the earthly things. The
most obvious and undeniable reality is that we are here on earth, and
we just cannot and should not be indifferent to its affairs.
What we are rather reminded of is that we learn how to
relate everything to heaven, and not get entangled with our merely
earthly and temporal affairs. Everything is meant to start and end
with God who is the Creator of everything and the very foundation of
reality.
Our problem that we often do not realize is that we live
our life as if everything is just a matter of our concerns here.
There’s hardly any reference to heaven. We need to wake up from this
lethargy, make the necessary changes in our attitude and actuations,
and get to conforming our whole life to this truth of our faith.
We have been told that our worldly and temporal affairs
only have a relative value. They are only means and occasions for us
to work out our duty of reaching our ultimate end which is heaven, or
our eternal life with God, our Creator and Father.
What has absolute value is to be with God, with whom we
can start to be with while here on earth and going about our temporal
concerns. As the Letter to the Hebrews tells us, “We have not here a
lasting city. But we seek one that is to come.” (13,14)
We need to disabuse ourselves from the thinking, often
unarticulated but is quite ingrained in us and in our culture, that we
can build a permanent city here on earth. We rather have to be clear
about this basic truth—the ‘terra firma’ is not in this world; it is
in heaven.
But how can we relate everything to heaven? First of all,
by exercising our faith that tells us that being our Creator, God is
always with us and is actively governing everything through his
providence.
With the revelation of his mind and will already fully
done in Christ and perpetuated till the end of time through his
Church, we already know what it takes to relate things to him and to
heaven.
We are asked to pray, to be generous with sacrifices, to
study and thoroughly know the doctrine of our faith, and to realize
that our earthly concerns always have some connection with God and
with heaven that we need to discover and to apply ourselves to.
We have to learn to undertake a continuing struggle, both
interiorly and exteriorly, both spiritually and materially, so that
while being immersed in the things of this world, we don’t lose sight
of our real goal which is heaven, a state that transcends our material
and temporal dimensions.
It’s truly a big challenge for us to learn how to be both
in the world and yet to have our mind and heart in heaven. St.
Augustine gives us an idea of how to go about this task. It’s a matter
of growing in our desire for it.
“Such is our Christian life,” he said. “By desiring heaven
we exercise the powers of our soul. Now this exercise will be
effective only to the extent that we free ourselves from desires
leading to infatuation with this world.”
How important, therefore, it is to always rectify our
intentions! That is, we should see to it that whatever we may doing,
even if in the end, what we do could be considered wrong or deficient
in some sense, should be done out of faith and love for God and for
others.
This is to live out what St. Paul once said: “Whether you
eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do, do all to the glory of God.”
(1 Cor 10,31) It’s in this way that we can somehow live with the great
mystery of heaven. This is how we can set our hearts on heaven.
Let’s remember that heaven is so mysterious that “eye has
not seen nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what
things God has prepared for those who love him.” (1 Cor 2,9)
We have to learn to live with the mystery of heaven now.
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