If we’re totally honest, we’re not always certain we want heaven. To be sure, there are times when we ache inconsolably for the world to be made right, for evil to be destroyed and every tear wiped away. But then, there are other times when, if we’re really honest, what we read in Scripture of life after death seems less appealing than life here and now. Take today’s Gospel reading for example: No marriage? Really? But, we reply, the love of husband and wife is one of the most beautiful, treasured gifts in the world. If marriage no longer exists in heaven, could I ever really be happy there? These are hard questions. The problem is that we start to get the idea that heaven, rather than being a more vibrant, alive, restored edition of this earthly life, is actually just the washed-out, black-and-white version.
We have a niggling feeling that this can’t really be the case, but…
So how should we respond our desire for eternal life is a little too “meh”? Sometimes I find it helpful to think about a joke my pastor once told.
A rich man turns up to the pearly gates with two briefcases in hand. St. Peter tells him that he really doesn’t need them, but the man insists. A porter angel begins to carry them, but after a few steps says “Goodness! What on earth have you got in here?” The man, rather smugly, says, “Take a look”. He opens the briefcase and finds it stuffed with 24 karet gold bars. The angel bursts out laughing and says, “You brought paving stones!?”
Resurrection life will be so beyond our imagination that the things we cling to for dear life here may well prove to be no more than paving stones there. As the great Christian writer, C. S. Lewis once said:
“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half- hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
It’s true, we don’t really know how husband and wife will see each other in the new creation, but we do know that Christ truly is the Lord of life, and life with him will be more satisfying than anything we can even begin to imagine.
Reflection by Laura on Luke 20:27-40