Heaven's Gate

 

The Archdiocese of Detroit sent out a note announcing a new ministry it was beginning, the Confraternity for Holy Souls, focused on praying for the souls in Purgatory.  The Powerpoint slides it sent show the Church’s teaching on Purgatory, many saints words and prayers about and for souls in Purgatory, and the diocese recommended days and times when we could all be praying together, even if remotely:  prayer warriors at heaven’s gate, constantly howling to let them in.  Hounds of heaven.  I found the idea of the new ministry and its presentation to be very interesting. 

I know most Protestant religions don’t accept the teaching of Purgatory, but whether a place or as a time, I find it’s existence very compelling.  It makes sense to me.  If heaven is being with the perfection of God, it just stands to reason I need to be very worthy/perfect of so high a blessing.  Heaven has to feel that way, and be desired that way.  The Catholic Church teaches, and I understand, God deserves all our attention when we are finally allowed into His presence.  Even kings demanded that.  If we went to heaven still yearning for things of earth, or still having regrets for having failed Him in past sins, won’t He know our lack of full attention?  Won’t He feel it equates to a lack of full love?  Purgatory is a spot and/or time when we leave those things of earth behind.  It makes total sense to me.  I have so many earthly attachments.

And since it also makes sense that most people will leave this world still having such attachments to earth in their souls, Purgatory must, therefore, be a time/place for many, many souls --- even our family and friends, destined for heaven but not quite there yet.  Wouldn’t we want them to speedily get past Purgatory time and into heaven?  Our prayers can help.  God always hears our prayers.  This also I know; I have seen much of God’s answer to my prayers.  So, while this world seems in a chaotic state beyond most people’s control, the Archdiocese suggests a better use of our time than worrying.  Let us begin to pray with confidence for those souls in Purgatory especially, perhaps, for those who have been forgotten, whom no one prays for.  Won’t they be surprised, that they haven’t been forgotten?  Won’t we be glad, when our time comes, that we are not forgotten?

But that brings me to a last thought and question.  I have great hopes and expectations about heaven, being with God, although I am sure it will be far more wonderful than I can imagine, beyond all my hopes or expectations.  That’s what I expect for me.  But what about someone who has low expectations of heaven or only dimly believes.  If he enters that exact same glory that I hope to enter, won’t he be even more thrilled and more excited than I?  I really do hope that is so, it would please God so much ---- only I also hope I won’t be envious of his heavenly joy.  😊  I want to find joy in his joy, as he enters heaven’s gate.

 

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It was good to reflect on heaven, but for now I’m on earth, and it sometimes feels as if there’s not much here to give me joy.  So, this week as I went to morning mass, I was completely shocked --- and filled with joy --- at a new statue outside the church.

The new statue of Mary is not on a pedestal, but rather it stands on the ground, as if she were just another person of average height right in front of you.  But with her smile and prayerful pose, you immediately felt she was no average person; I wanted to hug her.  Jesus entered the world through Mary, and now her image stands at the entrance to His house.  The stone path leading up to and around the new statue is shaped like a key, with Mary at the center, like a key to His house, the key to His heart.

In 1983, I helped found the church where that statue now stands.  It’s taken many years, but now I feel that church is finally complete.  The number one survey response prior to the building of that church was that the people wanted it to feel like a holy place, a house of prayer, a house of God. 

Statues and pictures are usually meant to remind us of people or times, but this statue, with its folded hands in prayer, only reminds me of where it is placed, and Who is within this church.  It is a holy place.

Change My Heart

 

I was making the short drive to church, when on the radio I heard a man speak of how he had been Catholic, went to college, and then like all those around him thought his faith unimportant.  He was becoming an OBGYN, and began performing abortions --- a woman’s right.  After two years, he said, a friend asked him to go on a pilgrimage to a place called Medjugorje, in Yugoslavia.  He declined, but a couple of days later his mother asked him the same thing.  So he went, “and on cross hill I suddenly realized all I had ignored as unimportant in faith matters in my life was all true.  And nothing else mattered more.”  He went home and told his co-workers he could never again perform an abortion, and he grew in faith and pro-life advocacy.

When I heard his conversion at Medjugorje story, I cried.  It was my story.  Like him, I fell on my knees there, as in an instant I knew all I had ignored as unimportant was true, and from then on nothing was more important in my life as I, like him, grew in faith.  I am not a medical person; I have never performed an abortion (thank God), but my life impacted many others.  And because God changed my life, I helped Him change the lives of others.  Nothing is more important.  And the song echoed in my brain: “Change my heart, O God; make it ever true.  Change my heart, O God, I want to be like You.”

I know of many people who have studied their way into the Catholic faith.  I know of some who have prayed for God to enter their lives or the lives of a loved one, and He did. I didn’t study, nor did I pray or know anyone who prayed for me.  Yet, God in His love and mercy changed my heart, in a little village in Yugoslavia.

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And later this morning, I read from a letter to the Corinthians, by St. Clement, pope:

It is our duty then to be eager to do good, for everything is from God.  He urges us, who believe in him with all our heart, not to be idle or careless in any good work.  Our boasting and confidence must rest in him.  Let us be subject to his will…. Beloved, how blessed, how wonderful are God’s gifts!... What then are those gifts that are in store for those who wait for him?  Only the most holy Creator and Father of the ages knows their greatness and their splendor.

We should then strive with the greatest zeal to be found among the number of those who await him, so that we may share in the promised gifts.  How will this be, beloved?  If our mind is fixed on God through faith, if we are diligent in seeking what is pleasing and acceptable to him, if we fulfill what is according to his blameless will, and follow the way of truth, casting away from ourselves all that is unholy.

Change my heart, O God …

Salt

 

You are the salt of the earth.  But what if salt goes flat?  How
can you restore its flavor?  Then it is good for nothing, but to
be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

St. John of Capistrano (Feast Day October 23) wrote: “Those who are called to the table of the Lord must glow with the brightness that comes from the good example of a praiseworthy and blameless life… Their upright lives must make them like the salt of the earth for themselves and the rest of mankind.  The brightness of their wisdom must make them like the light of the world that brings light to others.

Speak out when the time is right; do not hide your wisdom.
Preach the word, persevere in the task, both when convenient
and inconvenient; correct, reprove, summon to obedience,
but do all with patience and sound doctrine.
--- Sirach 4:23-4; 2Tim 4:2

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The above readings (amidst a little quiet prayer time) opened my mind to see an old Gospel passage in a new light.  When I had previously read about salt going bad and being useless, I thought how in Biblical times salt was used as a preservative (it still is in today’s canned goods), and when salt went bad, food spoiled.  So. I interpreted the Bible as saying I need to read the Bible and pray (continually get new salt) so my faith doesn’t go bad.  I saw salt as likened to a growth or renewal in faith.  But now I see more.

Salt also makes one thirsty for more.  Drinking salt water will never quench your thirst; you want more.  Good evangelization, good homilies, good faith writings are salt to me --- a good thing, and they make me thirst for more.  But bad evangelization, homilies, not reading faith writings will let my faith die of thirst.  Salt can also be considered as something which opens a new existence or insight, like when salt is put on ice; it melts it and makes it safer.  Good uses of salt can soften hardened hearts.

The epitome of bad salt was Lot’s wife, who turned into a pillar of salt when she looked back with yearning on the city of Sodom.  Yearning for evil, rather than going forward to the good, leads to death.

The salt we need to yearn for is the love of God; because when we yearn for love of self we can never get enough, and so we die.  Sometimes it is hard to yearn for the good salt, it feels like the salt put on an open wound.  We want to scream in pain when the salt is applied, but the salt destroys infection, a critically important life-saving thing.  Even when it’s hard to take, we must take the salt.

“You are the salt of the earth.”  The words were spoken to the Apostles, but they are meant for us also.  We are meant to evangelize with our lives, not to just preserve others, like meat preserved with salt, but to create a yearning in them for more, to melt hearts to crave the love of God.

Speak out when the time is right.  Preach the word … when convenient
and inconvenient.  And do all with patience.

I thought living a good life consisted of tossing seeds as I walked righteously for others to see, and then for God to nourish and grow the seeds.  But I now see spreading salt is important also, perhaps more important, and so I need to grow in faith and understanding, to make sure the salt I spread doesn’t grow old.  Sunday church alone isn’t good enough.  I need to grow in faith and grow in the opportunities for it to be spread to others.

And what if I don’t grow in faith?  Then it is good for nothing, but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

Be the salt of the earth.  Spread the Word, even as you grow in it.  Don’t seek the love of self the world sows, or you will get lots of salt, as did Lot’s wife.