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At the end of the Book of Revelation, when St. John describes the vision of heaven he received, he describes heaven as “the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” Imagine that — heaven is a city! Really, imagine the heavenly city. How many people are there?
Remember, it’s a city, there are many people in a city. What do the faces of the people look like? How do they interact with one another? Keep in mind that St. John says that in this city “there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, for the old order has passed away.” So, the people won’t be doing anything that would cause these things. Take a few minutes to imagine this.
I bet it’s hard to imagine such a vision. Maybe St. John is lucky that he had it given to him. I think it’s hard to really imagine all of this because we still live in this city (or these Twin Cities) on earth, where there still is mourning and pain, and we do things to one another to cause harm. Yet Jesus makes all things new, and as followers of Christ we trust that he will renew our lives on earth even as he leads us toward heaven. The Second Vatican Council teaches us, “We do not know the time for the consummation of the earth and of humanity, nor do we know how all things will be transformed. As deformed by sin, the shape of this world will pass away; but we are taught that God is preparing a new dwelling place and a new earth where justice will abide, and whose blessedness will answer and surpass all the longings for peace which spring up in the human heart” (“Gaudium et Spes,” 39).
In this hope, we seek to follow Jesus’ command to love one another as he has loved us. The Second Vatican Council reminds us that Jesus “taught us that the new command of love was the basic law of human perfection and hence of the world’s transformation” (GS 38). Jesus makes all things new through his love poured out on the cross, laying down his life so that all may have new life. This is the love that Jesus commands us to have for one another: to lay down our lives for one another so that we may have new life. Put another way, Jesus commands us to seek the good of another for the other’s sake and not our own.
To love this way is hard. Yet love is what our hearts are made to do. But we need to receive this love in order to give this love. Once more, the Second Vatican Council points us to where we can receive this love: Jesus’ body and blood, the holy Eucharist, where Jesus provides “a meal of brotherly solidarity and a foretaste of the heavenly banquet” (GS 38).
In the heavenly city, “God’s dwelling is with the human race. He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will always be with them as their God.” The holy Eucharist is the foretaste of that city, and our strength here on earth to live in the love of Jesus that unites all, together, in that city. As we traditionally sing on Holy Thursday, “Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est:” “Where charity and love are, there God is.”
Father Aamodt is associate pastor of St. Hubert in Chanhassen. He can be reached at [email protected].
Sunday, May 15
Fifth Sunday of Easter
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