Tomorrow's gospel reading is one of the puzzling ones.
Questions on what happens to us after we die are obviously based on the main assumption that on death our souls survive.....and we go to heaven to be joined to our loved ones. Or not as the case might be!
The story of the woman who married seven brothers one by one is a little far fetched but the question of which of them would be counted as her husband after death is of special interest to those of us who have had more than one husband....
Are they going to be up there waiting for us?
It's a matter of faith that often I take for granted....of course I will be with my darling David again when I die....but he had a wife before me.....
Faith here falls into all sorts of traps.
That the soul survives death is something that can never be proved but is I think taken for granted by most of us.
But there lies the problem...
Tackling this in a blog is not a good idea but I always talk about what is on my mind....and this morning it's this reading...and the sermon I'm writing for tomorrow.
Is our faith justified? Or do we cling to the notion that we will see our loved ones again after death against all the odds?
For me this is a hard one...
I am very aware that need plays a part in it....I need to be convinced that my loved ones are up there waiting for me...but is this unshakable belief just wishful thinking?
Over the last years my faith has been tested....and yet somehow even though I am aware of that I still do believe that my dearly loved ones are up there in the ether and that one day I shall see them all again....
Just not this weekend!
Reading this again a few minutes after posting it I am aware that I keep referring to "up there"
Heaven is clearly up there in my mind.... I see that I have no doubts that my loved ones have gone to heaven...I'm just not certain of it's geography!
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1 comment:
I tend to think of Heaven in terms of the Revelation story, the Kingdom of God, renewed on earth, with the King Living among us. All having been made new, former enemies if we meet them, will be our friends and we will all live in love and in praise of God.
The issue is our imagination. Given the size of the current earth, and the billions of Saints who've died and gone before us, how will we find our loved ones in the crowd?
Fanciful I know, but we have to trust the word of God, which we teach and live out day to day - without that hope and trust, where would our faith be?
I for one want to meet my mother, who left us when I was four years old, and ask her why? Perhaps along with my sisters beginning to know someone we should have loved, but it was denied to us.
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