Hey y’all,

Heaven. Most all Americans, at least according to a Pew Research Center report from 2021, believe in heaven – 73% is the number they came up with. Roman Catholics actually better that percentage: 90% of us believe in heaven according to the survey, but only 74% of us believe in Hell. But for today, let’s focus on heaven. Hell is for another bulletin on another Sunday.

While the Pew survey shows a very strong belief in heaven amongst us Catholic folks – (the Protestants better us at 93%) – there doesn’t seem to be a really firm consensus on just what heaven is, or just what heavenly existence looks like. For American’s belief in saintly existence, or the experience of those enjoying heaven drops into the 60s percentile. For Example, are those who have gone before us suffering? 65% of us say “no”. Do the dearly departed become angels? 43% of us say “yes”. Are the deceased able to have relationships with those they’ve left behind on Earth? 25% of us Americans think so.

Now, of course, the research coming from the surveys of the Pew Research Center are based on public opinion, and public opinion being what it is, isn’t based on theology or the teachings of the Church. But I think it is interesting that our fellow Americans do think about heaven and have some kind of belief in the reality of existence after death. So, it might be good for us to take what is offered to us in our readings today and meditate on what Jesus is teaching.

This Sunday and the last two previous Sundays, our Mass readings have been about first “the Kingdom” and then last Sunday and today “the Kingdom of Heaven”. And Jesus speaks about the Kingdom of Heaven, this concept for which we have very little public consensus, in ways that are very earthly – farmed fields, mustard seeds growing into bushes, yeast leavening wheat dough, buried treasure, a rare and costly pearl, and a big catch of fish! Those diverse, parabolic similes and metaphors are concluded with a promised judgement, a separation of the good from the bad in which the unrighteous are thrown “into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth”. I guess we’ll have to consider hell at least for a little bit.

“What do we make of all of this?” you might be thinking. Well, from my perspective, Jesus is teaching us that Heaven is of God and of his will for those who have ears to hear. Heaven is also something that Jesus encourages us to want, desire and work for. It is someplace and something that we should be actively pursuing now, today, by how we act, by what we value, by considering just what it will cost us. And the cost isn’t burdensome. Really the cost is our sincere identity as Christians. We are sons and daughters of God both now and forever, looking to our Divine inheritance if we choose to make it ours. Heaven is a Kingdom prepared for us as we embrace God who is our Sovereign. Heaven is our gift from a humble, crucified Savior who is Lord of Lords and King of Kings. Heaven is grace bestowed on us as by a Spirit that immerses us with faith, hope and love on earth until faith, hope and love are fulfilled. Think about this a lil’ bit. Such thinking about the Kingdom of Heaven takes us beyond an impersonal survey into a very personal, intimate realm of “Beatific Vision” – seeing God “face to face” surrounded by a communion of Saints and angelic beings engaged in perpetual praise, adoration of joy. While that concept of heaven isn’t held by the vast majority of American survey takers, it is held by me. I pray that it could be held by you, if it’s not yours already. Because my brothers and sisters, as Scripture and our Church teach us, Heaven is glorious.

Blessings y’all,

Fr. Reynold