setting our eyes to heaven
Two days ago a strange thing happened with the park lights that you see in front of the cathedral. The story goes like this. Days before while digging through the garden some workers thought they saw what looked like human bones near one of the lamp post. They picked these up and placed it on a corner where they forgot about it. One of the electricians working in the area saw the bones and promptly reburied them as he was covering up the wirings beneath the pavement and forgot all about it. Days later while they were testing the lights, one lamp post would not light up. They tried to trace the problem and fixed it, but it would not work. They took down the lamp post, examined all the connections, changed a socket and put it back again. Still it would not work. They took a tester and discovered that no current was flowing. So they cut the wire. Then the electricians retested the wire from another post. To their surprise current was flowing . But they have already cut the wire, so why was there current? Strange.
They could not understand and they could not believe what they were seeing - their tester telling them that there was current flowing through the wire despite the fact that the wire they were testing was cut from the source. The electrician suddenly remembered the bones he buried near the lamp post and so he begun to pray for the owner of those bones. After a while, lo and behold, the park lights lighted up. Strange. An appropriate story as we end halloween and piesta minatay. I must admit it gave me goose bumps, nagpalanindog balahibo ko, but I admit I like the story. Now I can easily discourage young people from dating in front of the cathedral. Hala date date kamo da, basi gulpi lang mapatay ang mga suga kag may manguhit. Ang lain pa gid kon dira ka imo nagasimba sa gwa bisan may lugar diri sa sulod. Basi gulpi lang may kamot nga mauyat sa imo tiil. Joke.
We hear stories like this often. When we were young and had a fever we did not immediately swallow paracetamol like the children of today, though my parents own more than ten drugstores in the city. For fever, my lola instead would send for her ever reliable manugluy-a. The manugluy-a will come in patadyong, pound the ginger, roll it between her palms, put it on my head and blow as long and as hard as she could, three times. Then she would make a long yawn her mouth stretching to the max. Then while everyone sat still to listen, she would pronounce the verdict. Toto, ginbugno ka sang mga kalag. And all of us will be guessing who, and then all of us will be praying for the repose of the soul of whoever caused the fever. A few hours later, the fever was gone.
What happens to a soul when a person dies? Ngaa may nagapamugno, ngaa may nagapabatyag? Where do our souls go after we die? How do our souls live in the afterlife?
Today in our gospel Jesus is giving us some hints. Without providing us with many details, Jesus tells us that after we die if we are judge worthy, we continue to live, not as we live here on earth but, as he said, like angels. Unlike here on earth where we work, we eat, we marry, we suffer and grieve, in the life to come we live like angels. I really don’t know how angels live and so I cannot really tell you exactly how, and neither did Jesus elaborate on the matter. But the thing is after we die we have an accounting, we face judgment and we continue to live, for as the prayer for the dead would say, in death, life is changed, not ended. Life is changed, but not ended.
Have you ever thought about this seriously enough? Have you ever spent some time wondering, thinking that after this life, you would still be living? That after dying you will begin to live, not with the same earthly life you once had but a different kind of life? Do we live our lives now looking forward to our lives in the life to come? Do we act, do we decide, do we make choices today with a view as to its consequences to our future life after our death? Do we believe with our whole heart that since life after death is a changed life, there will be vindication in the end, there will be real justice unlike the justice we experience in this life? Does this future life as a goal make me more hopefully, more courageous? Do I believe that in the end I will come to know peace, real peace, the peace only the presence of God can bring? Do I live my life now believing that in the life to come I will be held accountable for what I do today and what I failed to do in this life? That is why the young men in our first reading were not afraid to die. In fact they were more afraid to transgress God’s laws than dying for they believed that the life after life is the more important life. One said: “you dismiss us from this present life, but the King of the universe will raise us up to an everlasting renewal of life.” And the other young man said, “One cannot but choose to die at the hands of mortals and to cherish the hope God gives of being raised again by him.”
Some people nowadays have no thought of this anymore. Some people live as thought this is the only life they will come to know of. Some of us live as if all the good that can be experienced we can experience only in the here and now, and no more. Most of us here, even the very religious among us are afraid of death not really believing wholeheartedly that life continues after death, not wholeheartedly believing that God had promised them eternal life.
When I was young and idealistic I asked God to make me live until 40 and that’s enough for me, I would like to go to heaven already. When I celebrated my 39th birthday I changed my prayer and asked God to make me live until 60. I can only imagine myself on my 59th birthday renegotiating my deal with God asking him to make me live a little bit longer still. Let us admit it, we are afraid to die because we do not know what comes next and we do not really believe that life goes on even after death.
But did you know that St. Cyprian, one of the Fathers of the Church said that it is improper for a person to pray the Our Father praying may your kingdom come and at the same time pray for a long life. You can’t pray the Our Father and mean it when you keep on insisting praying for a long life. You are after all, as the saint says, longing for the kingdom of God to come and that kingdom can only come fully when we die and our souls are freed to live in the presence of God.
A preacher was preaching about heaven. At one point he asked the congregation - who wants to go to heaven? And everyone raised their hands except one. And so the preacher asked again, this time a little bit louder, who wants to go to heaven, raise your hand. And again everyone raised their hands except one. The preacher now quite angry shouted, you, you sitting over there, do you want to go to heaven? The man said, of course preacher I want to go to heaven. Then why did you not raise your hands, asked the preacher. And the man replied, well I thought you all want to go to heaven now. Me I want to go to heaven but later, much, much later.
Well, I believe it’s OK to be afraid to die after all. All of us are. But at least let us live our lives today with our eyes set on heaven, set on that kind of life that will never end.
They could not understand and they could not believe what they were seeing - their tester telling them that there was current flowing through the wire despite the fact that the wire they were testing was cut from the source. The electrician suddenly remembered the bones he buried near the lamp post and so he begun to pray for the owner of those bones. After a while, lo and behold, the park lights lighted up. Strange. An appropriate story as we end halloween and piesta minatay. I must admit it gave me goose bumps, nagpalanindog balahibo ko, but I admit I like the story. Now I can easily discourage young people from dating in front of the cathedral. Hala date date kamo da, basi gulpi lang mapatay ang mga suga kag may manguhit. Ang lain pa gid kon dira ka imo nagasimba sa gwa bisan may lugar diri sa sulod. Basi gulpi lang may kamot nga mauyat sa imo tiil. Joke.
We hear stories like this often. When we were young and had a fever we did not immediately swallow paracetamol like the children of today, though my parents own more than ten drugstores in the city. For fever, my lola instead would send for her ever reliable manugluy-a. The manugluy-a will come in patadyong, pound the ginger, roll it between her palms, put it on my head and blow as long and as hard as she could, three times. Then she would make a long yawn her mouth stretching to the max. Then while everyone sat still to listen, she would pronounce the verdict. Toto, ginbugno ka sang mga kalag. And all of us will be guessing who, and then all of us will be praying for the repose of the soul of whoever caused the fever. A few hours later, the fever was gone.
What happens to a soul when a person dies? Ngaa may nagapamugno, ngaa may nagapabatyag? Where do our souls go after we die? How do our souls live in the afterlife?
Today in our gospel Jesus is giving us some hints. Without providing us with many details, Jesus tells us that after we die if we are judge worthy, we continue to live, not as we live here on earth but, as he said, like angels. Unlike here on earth where we work, we eat, we marry, we suffer and grieve, in the life to come we live like angels. I really don’t know how angels live and so I cannot really tell you exactly how, and neither did Jesus elaborate on the matter. But the thing is after we die we have an accounting, we face judgment and we continue to live, for as the prayer for the dead would say, in death, life is changed, not ended. Life is changed, but not ended.
Have you ever thought about this seriously enough? Have you ever spent some time wondering, thinking that after this life, you would still be living? That after dying you will begin to live, not with the same earthly life you once had but a different kind of life? Do we live our lives now looking forward to our lives in the life to come? Do we act, do we decide, do we make choices today with a view as to its consequences to our future life after our death? Do we believe with our whole heart that since life after death is a changed life, there will be vindication in the end, there will be real justice unlike the justice we experience in this life? Does this future life as a goal make me more hopefully, more courageous? Do I believe that in the end I will come to know peace, real peace, the peace only the presence of God can bring? Do I live my life now believing that in the life to come I will be held accountable for what I do today and what I failed to do in this life? That is why the young men in our first reading were not afraid to die. In fact they were more afraid to transgress God’s laws than dying for they believed that the life after life is the more important life. One said: “you dismiss us from this present life, but the King of the universe will raise us up to an everlasting renewal of life.” And the other young man said, “One cannot but choose to die at the hands of mortals and to cherish the hope God gives of being raised again by him.”
Some people nowadays have no thought of this anymore. Some people live as thought this is the only life they will come to know of. Some of us live as if all the good that can be experienced we can experience only in the here and now, and no more. Most of us here, even the very religious among us are afraid of death not really believing wholeheartedly that life continues after death, not wholeheartedly believing that God had promised them eternal life.
When I was young and idealistic I asked God to make me live until 40 and that’s enough for me, I would like to go to heaven already. When I celebrated my 39th birthday I changed my prayer and asked God to make me live until 60. I can only imagine myself on my 59th birthday renegotiating my deal with God asking him to make me live a little bit longer still. Let us admit it, we are afraid to die because we do not know what comes next and we do not really believe that life goes on even after death.
But did you know that St. Cyprian, one of the Fathers of the Church said that it is improper for a person to pray the Our Father praying may your kingdom come and at the same time pray for a long life. You can’t pray the Our Father and mean it when you keep on insisting praying for a long life. You are after all, as the saint says, longing for the kingdom of God to come and that kingdom can only come fully when we die and our souls are freed to live in the presence of God.
A preacher was preaching about heaven. At one point he asked the congregation - who wants to go to heaven? And everyone raised their hands except one. And so the preacher asked again, this time a little bit louder, who wants to go to heaven, raise your hand. And again everyone raised their hands except one. The preacher now quite angry shouted, you, you sitting over there, do you want to go to heaven? The man said, of course preacher I want to go to heaven. Then why did you not raise your hands, asked the preacher. And the man replied, well I thought you all want to go to heaven now. Me I want to go to heaven but later, much, much later.
Well, I believe it’s OK to be afraid to die after all. All of us are. But at least let us live our lives today with our eyes set on heaven, set on that kind of life that will never end.
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