Heaven is our Home
Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14; 1 John 3:1-3; Matthew 5:1–12a
The double decapitations in France, the bloody October 20 in Nigeria and October 24 in Cameroon, and the many human lives that are needlessly lost around the world challenge us to think of a better place other than this world. All Saints’ Day provides this alternative for us: Heaven is our Home! There will be an end to the imperfections of this world and the hatred of human beings; and, the human yearning for perfect peace will be assuaged, in our new home—Heaven.
Our first reading provides Christians suffering from Roman imperial persecutions with a hope of a better place—Heaven. Our first reading links up their sufferings and death with those of Jesus Christ, who died under Pontus Pilate. By the shedding of his blood, Jesus Christ marks his children with a special seal that claims them from this “valley of death” of a world, and leads them to their eternal home with himself: “These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress; they have washed their robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:14).
Persecutions and the desire for peace are global phenomena. In Heaven, there is enough space for everyone. People’s race, gender and nationality are no requirements for admission, the blood of Christ on the Cross of Calvary has granted access to all: “After this [the number of Jews saved] I had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue. They stood before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice: ‘Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne, and from the Lamb’” (Revelation 7:9-10).
As long as our earthly pilgrimage lasts, we all have one duty—keep ourselves immaculate. This is how our second reading puts it: “Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure” (1 John 3:2-3). Earthly dwelling is our laboratory or period of practicing peace and love, these virtues show that we are God’s children because Jesus Christ was massacred innocently like many of our brothers and sisters today. It is the hope of Heaven and the imitation of Christ’s death that guarantee peace on earth—“Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure” (1 John 3:3).
Our gospel enumerates the sources of violence in the world, the vices that fuel evil: hunger, murder, arrogance, insults, ill-treatment of others. These vices destroy the earth and human beings within it; they blind us from seeing God in others; they are the weapons of the evil ones against innocent children of God. In order to overcome the vices that lead to evil, every child of God must learn to undermine and relativize the importance of hunger and riches by being “poor in spirit,” to topple arrogance through humility and meekness, to underwrite murder by saving lives, to conquer insults with love of neighbor and eliminate violence by being a willing victim. The only access to God is purity: “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8). It is within the human heart that evils of all sorts are conceived and eventually executed in reality.
“Heaven is our home” is the realization that we are all children of God without exception. To accept that we are children of God is to acknowledge that killing any child of God is violence done to God himself. To be involved in any kind of violence is a denial of our filiation to God, because everyone who kills is not of God and cannot have a share in God—“We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother . . . Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him” (1 John 3:12, 15).
All Saints’ Day/Sunday is a reminder to us that “Heaven is our home”. Beyond being a reminder, it is a challenge to us to make our present earth a better place than it is by practicing the beatitudes. Lest we forget, as long as we live upon earth, we will have to bear with violence, insults, murder and arrogance. No vice ever brings virtue in its wake; only a pure heart sees God, NOT a murderous, arrogant and insulting person. For the person of pure heart, his/her Heaven has started, because he or she is already a child of God.
Assignment for the Week:
Practice purity of thoughts this week.