(Thirty-third Sunday of the Year (B): This homily was given on November 16, 1997 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I. by Fr. Raymond Suriani. Read Daniel 12: 1-3; Mark 13: 1-37.)

"Would I be most ‘at home’ in heaven, or somewhere else?"

Most of us have seen pictures of Michelangelo’s painting of the Last Judgment. Some of us have been blessed to see it in person, as I did several weeks ago when I was in Rome. It’s certainly one of his best known works, and it’s so large that it takes up an entire wall of the Sistine Chapel. In this particular painting, there are many captivating figures, but the one that always sends shivers up my spine is found in the lower right hand section of the work. There we find a man sitting, slouched forward, looking straight ahead toward us, with his left hand covering part of his face. But it’s the uncovered part of his face that speaks volumes. It’s the expression on the visible part of his face that causes me to tremble. You see, the man has just found out that he’s been condemned to hell for all eternity, and the look on his face conveys the horror--the all-consuming horror--of hearing that sentence from the Lord.

The Last Judgment--the Day of the Lord: the Bible is full of references to this final moment of human history. Today’s first reading from Daniel 12 gives us the basic sequence of events leading up to that moment: there will be (at some unknown time in the future) a final conflict between good and evil. "At that time,’ Daniel says, ‘there shall arise Michael, the great prince, guardian of God’s people." (Whenever St. Michael is around, you know there’s a battle with evil that’s about to be fought!) Daniel goes on, "It shall be a time unsurpassed in distress since nations began until that time. At that time your people shall escape, everyone who is found written in the book. Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake; Some shall live forever, others shall be an everlasting horror and disgrace." Here, way back in the Old Testament, we see the basic elements of Catholic teaching concerning the Last Things. The Catholic Church teaches that when we die our souls are separated from our bodies. Our souls then go to one of three places: heaven, hell or purgatory. It’s only at the Final Judgment at the end of time that our bodies are resurrected and reunited with our souls. This is what Daniel is speaking about in this section of chapter 12. And, of course, after the Final Judgment, we will go either to heaven or to hell. Purgatory won’t be needed anymore, so it will cease to exist.

The New Testament, not surprisingly, gives us some further insights concerning the Day of the Lord, one of the most important of which is found in today’s gospel. This passage is taken from chapter 13 of the gospel of Mark. The chapter begins with the disciples looking at the Temple and saying to Jesus, "Teacher, look at the huge blocks of stone and the enormous buildings!" (Apparently the Temple was a pretty impressive place.) Jesus says in response, "You see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left upon another--all will be torn down." Here our Lord is prophesying the destruction of Jerusalem--which took place 40 years later when the Roman armies marched into the city. And if you go to Jerusalem today (as I did last year) you see how accurate our Lord’s prediction was. The building that the apostles were marveling at is completely gone. Titus and the Romans leveled it. Not one stone was left on another. Basically all that remains is The Wailing Wall, which was part of the foundation of the building, not the building itself.

But Fr. Ray, I thought that this gospel gave us an insight about the end of the world? It does. The apostles wanted to know what the end of the world would be like, and so Jesus gave them an analogy that they could understand. His message was, "If you want to know what it will be like at the end of time, then pay close attention in 40 years when the Romans decimate this city and tear down this beautiful temple. That’s what it will be like."

We don’t know if we will be here when this final moment of human history arrives. But one way or another, we will all face God’s judgment. If we die before the Second Coming of Christ, then that judgment will occur at the moment of our death.

Now, admittedly, some people have a problem with the thought of God’s judgment and the possibility of eternal damnation. They’ll say, "I don’t understand. How could a good, loving God send people to hell for all eternity?" I prayed about that question during the last several days, and what I came to realize was that God’s judgment is really the ultimate expression of his love! You see, God loves us so much, that at the end of our lives he allows us to go to the place where we will be most ‘at home’! I think most of us have had the experience of going to a party where we feel very uncomfortable. We don’t feel like we fit in. It might be a marvelous party, but we somehow know that it’s not the right place for us. We don’t feel ‘at home’. And so, even though it’s a happy event, we’d much rather be somewhere else.

Believe it or not, I think there are some people who would have the very same experience in heaven. Despite the glory of it all, they just wouldn’t be ‘at home’ there. And so our loving God has provided the alternative. For example, in heaven there is no drunkenness; in heaven there’s no opportunity to abuse drugs; in heaven there’s no pornography; in heaven there’s no sexual impurity. I know people who say they can’t have a "good time" in life without these things. Would these people really be "at home" in heaven? I sincerely doubt it. In heaven, there is no selfishness; in heaven there’s no opportunity to hold a grudge; in heaven there’s no opportunity to gamble away one’s paycheck; in heaven there’s no opportunity to ‘do your own thing’--in heaven everybody does God’s thing. In heaven, people worship God for more than one hour per week! Would we really be "at home" in a place like that? That’s an extremely important question for us to reflect on--because the answer to that question has eternal ramifications.

Dear Jesus, we ask you today to help us: help us by your power to live the faith we profess; so that when we die, you will say to us, "My son (my daughter) come into my Kingdom. Because of the way you lived your life on earth, I know that you will be most ‘at home’ here in heaven with me."