A Homily for Friday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
Friday, November 29, 2024
Prince of Peace Catholic Church – 8:00 Mass
Revelation 20:1-4, 11—21:2; Psalm 84:3, 4, 5-6A AND 8A; Luke 21:29-33
Audio Recording
As we approach the final days of this liturgical year, we continue to read about the end of the world. One reason the Church turns our focus toward the end times is to give us hope and consolation to help us endure the trials and tribulations of life as we know it now. And today our readings tell us that both Heaven and earth, as they currently exist, will pass away. What are we supposed to make of this?
Most of us are accustomed to thinking about eternal life in Heaven, right? But how many of us have considered that this eternal life will actually be lived on a re-created earth, in a re-created universe? For many of us, this teaching may come as quite a surprise. We may have always thought that earth will cease to exist at the end of time, possibly by some cosmic explosion or other nuclear event. Yet today’s readings and a close look at the Catechism reveal something very different.
The Catechism devotes one section within Article 12 on Life Everlasting – paragraphs 1042-1050 for those of you taking notes – to “The Hope of the New Heaven and the New Earth”, which follows the sections on the Particular Judgement, Heaven, Purgatory, Hell, and the Last Judgment.
Here we learn that Heaven and earth will pass away in their current form when Christ returns at the end of time for the Last Judgment. When Our Lord returns in all his glory, the Kingdom of God will come in its fullness and Heaven and earth will be UNITED AS ONE. This new creation, this new union of Heaven and earth, will exist for eternity.
Dear friends in Christ, the ULTIMATE future of God’s people is to reign with Christ in a RE-CREATED cosmos. We read in the Catechism that “the Kingdom of God will come in its fullness.… The righteous will reign forever with Christ, glorified in body and soul, and the universe itself will be renewed.”
When the kingdom of God comes in its fullness, when Christ returns in all of his glory, God’s people will receive new bodies and live on a renewed earth. There will be, of course, be continuity between heaven as it is now and the new heaven and earth in the future age: in both, we will enjoy the beatific vision; in both, we will reign with Christ; in both, we are freed from all suffering and sorrow. If heaven is defined as where God is present and reigns completely, it is clear that when the new heaven and the new earth are created, heaven comes to earth.
This, my friends, is what we have to look forward to! While it is impossible for us to really understand what this is going to be like, to wrap our minds around this, so to speak, my challenge to all of us today is that we become more aware of and embrace this Catholic Christian vision of the eternal cosmos.
Let your imagination run wild, while realizing that whatever you might imagine about living forever in this new Heaven and earth, it will be no more than a GLIMPSE of what God actually has prepared for us. Let the blessed hope that comes from this imaginative vision strengthen your faith, a faith which conforms us more deeply to the love of God and love of neighbor.
As we are about to begin a new liturgical year on Sunday, may our Faith, Hope and Love increase because we have a fuller understanding of what truly awaits us in eternity. While Advent is certainly a time to prepare for the coming of the Divine Infant in the manger, it is also a time to prepare for the coming of our victorious Lord, the King of the Universe, at the end of time, when he will usher in the Kingdom of God in its fullness and bring forth a new Heaven and a new earth where we will dwell forever. This is our hope, this is our faith, and what a glorious faith it is!
Read the Catechism!
I encourage you to dive deeper into the teachings of the Catholic Church by reading the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It contains the essential elements of our faith presented in the most understandable manner, enabling everyone to read and know what the Church professes, celebrates, lives, and prays.
Fr. Mike Schmitz has produced a video series called The Catechism in a Year. This is a wonderful way to read and learn what the Church teaches about all matters of our faith. To start at the beginning of the series, simply click on the “Oldest” button on the YouTube page (click the image to the right to see where this button is located).
You can also subscribe to the podcast if you’d prefer to have the content presented in audio form.