Yes

Do you think about heaven?

I have to be honest. I don't spend much time thinking about the hereafter. Maybe it's because no one really knows what to expect. We have these images of floating on clouds, angels playing on harps, and everyone enjoying some kind of bright, shiny utopia.

Seems about right, to tell you the truth. Peter Kreeft has a book on Heaven (subtitled "The Heart's Deepest Longing"). Now, he probably doesn't have any kind of expert, insider information to share, but I enjoy his perspective. He insists that heaven is more wonderful than we could imagine, it is our heart's deepest longing: to be in full communion with God and all our brothers and sisters (now that I think of it, that sounds a lot like the Gustavo Gutierrez quote I cited last week). Kreeft leads his reader on a quest for heaven and his basic point is that heaven SHOULD make a difference in our lives. Even if we can say so very little definitively about it.

Kreeft is convinced (and convincing) that we are offered heaven through Jesus Christ. All we have to do is say "Yes."

Our lives, then, are how we say "Yes" to Christ. And it's not like we have to figure it out on our own: that's what the gift of Scripture, the Church, and Tradition are for. But we have to say Yes!

This means that the moment we get out of bed in the morning, the way we live ought to change. Our life ought to be marked by ecstasy (joy), fearlessness (courage), and above all LOVE for God and one another. After all, as today's second reading [2 Pt. 3:8-14] attests, what we have been offered is life with the Lord -- an eternity so wonderful that one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like one day (I think that's beautiful).

This is good news. Very good news. And it was the message of John the Baptist, when he preached repentance for sins and baptism in the Jordan River [Mk.1:1-8]. And as we hear in today's Gospel, hordes of people followed him to the River to be forgiven and set their lives aright. But John was not interested in leading these people to heaven; he was focused on pointing them to the One who could: Christ. John is a prophet in the truest sense -- like the prophets of the Old Testament (Isaiah, Hosea, Daniel, MIcah, Elijah, etc.) -- he calls attention to the ways we have wandered from the covenant with God, the ways in which we have become selfish or proud or refused to love or be loved. Prophets call us out, and then call us back so once again we can live with ecstasy and fearlessness and love. And once again, be reminded that our lives need to be a YES to God so we can spend eternity with God, who is Love, FOREVER.

I don't think many people spend a lot of time thinking about heaven. And that's probably not a good thing. Because if we realized that how we live TODAY, right now, is what determines how we spend ALL ETERNITY, I think our lives would be significantly different.

That's why we have been given the saints, I think. They are like prophets, though not all of them are as vociferous (in fact, if we take St. Francis of Assisi to heart, the goal ought to be to "preach the gospel always, using words only if necessary"). Their lives -- which, to be clear were far from perfect -- are like little mirrors, giving us a glimpse of heaven. They remind us to think about spending all eternity with God and that ANY price we pay here, in this life is worth it. Like John the Baptist, the saints call us to repentance for the forgiveness of sins. They call us to reconcile ourselves with God and one another. They call us to lives of not only faith, hope, and love, but ecstasy and fearlessness. They call us to say Yes to Christ.

It's easy to think that there are saintly people and there's everybody else. But this is dangerous thinking. This is the kind of thinking that gets us off the hook. It's what allows us to not spend time thinking about heaven or how our lives are a Yes to God. We convince ourselves that that job is reserved for a select, few, really holy people. That's not true. Saints are just like everybody else. They just say Yes to Christ.

We're all called to be saints. We're all called to live in a way that makes us worthy of the Promise which Christ has given us. We're all called to -- like John the Baptist, the prophets before and after him, and the saints we read about and encounter today -- point to the One who beckons the world to its flourishing and its perfection.

As Peter Kreeft reminds us:

What do we want? Infinite Joy. Very well, here He is. Now what? Just say "Yes."

Is that it? Yes. Just keep saying "Yes."

Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes ...

May this week of Advent be our "Yes" to Christ and the start of a lifetime of repeating it.