Knowledge Ain't Enuf

I often have to remind myself that knowledge about God is not the same as a relationship with God.  I have a good knowledge about the things my church teaches about God.  I was involved in RCIA, that is the training of people looking to join the Church after they have become adults so I have had to study and learn about my religion.  This is certainly okay as far as it goes.  This knowledge was hard won and certainly useful for the people I imparted it to.  Take for example the simple Bible verse, "God is love."  To teach that to someone coming into the Church is a great good.  If I leave this nugget of truth about God in someone else's heart and do not take it into my own, then it does me no good. 

Paul tells us this in 1 Cor. 1 -3.  He says that no matter what if we do not have love in our heart, we are nothing more than a noisy gong or a cymbal making a senseless racket.  In other words, without taking the scriptures to heart, they do us no good at all.  We can memorize the whole Bible but if we do not put the knowledge into practice, it is useless to us.  So it is with God.  We can know all about Him, we can preach His wonders but if we do not have an intimate relationship with Him, well, then, so what?

For us Catholics, we have so many opportunities to unite ourselves with Christ.  Think about what you do every week at mass.  You worship God publicly and you receive God Himself into your body in the Holy Eucharist.  Is it just bread you eat?  If so, I can tell you where you can get better tasting bread and in a larger slice.  No, it is the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ Himself that you receive.  Do you take the host, return to your place and read the church bulletin or talk to your spouse?  Don't waste the chance to pour out your heart to the One who loves you. 

We Catholics can also meet Christ in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Christ wants us to trust Him and He also wants us to come to Him and relate to Him where we have failed so he can cure us of our spiritual ills and make us stronger in the faith.  This sacrament scares many people because they think that the priest who is acting in persona Christi will remember what they confess and hold it against them somehow.  We also think that our sins are somehow unique, that father has never heard someone confess what we did before.  Do you want to bet?  Reconciliation is an opportunity to begin a relationship with Christ even before you enter the confessional because you can prayerfully examine your conscience after asking the Lord to help you recall your sins.

There are so many ways in the Catholic Church to meet Christ.  There is adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, there are ministries that need your particular talent.  Just seek and you shall find.  Getting to know about Christ is a good first step.  Getting to know Jesus as a personal friend should be your goal because this friendship will last an eternity.  

A Place of My Own - Heaven

Jesus said to his disciples:

"Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me. In my Father's house, there are many dwelling places.If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?

And if I go and prepare a place for you,

I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.

Today I want to muse about heaven. Heaven is the place all of us Christians want to be once our life is changed and we close our eyes in death.  Some people have been heard to say that they don't want to go to heaven because none of their friends will be there.  Well, I would make better friends then!  

Of late there have been a few books written by people who have supposedly gone to heaven and have returned. I read one of them that relates the story of a little boy's visit to heaven and to Jesus.  I found the story very interesting. The book's title is "Heaven is for Real."  Colton is a child who got very, very sick indeed from a burst appendix and apparently died and went to heaven and visited with Jesus. While he was there he visited with his grandfather whom he never knew, learned that he had a sister that had been stillborn.  He relayed these facts to his parents when he was "sent back."  There was no way he could have known about the stillborn sister and he did not recognize the grandfather's picture until one was shown to him that showed his grandfather as younger.  The boy said that no one is old in heaven.  He also related what his father and mother were doing while he was in the operating room being worked on by the surgeons.  They also kept showing pictures of Jesus and he rejected all of them until he was shown one drawn by an artist who had a near death experience and visited heaven.  They showed Colton the painting Prince of Peace by Akiane Kamarik and he said nothing. His father pressed him for his comments and the boy said that this painting looked just like Jesus. 

Here is the painting - Is This Jesus?

Prince of Peace by
Akiane Kamarik 

That is a synopsis of Colton's story.  Is it true?  It most certainly could be true. What heaven will be like cannot be described in human terms.  Through my personal experience, I can tell you that heaven will be a place of great joy, I know this as fact, not as something I take on faith.  The details are for another post.  

My hopes for heaven are simple, like the old song.  Heaven will be a place where no one ever goes hungry or cold, nor will they grow old and die.  I believe that we will know absolutely everyone in heaven and will talk to them as we speak to our best friends and spouses here on earth. I believe that our minds will understand all of the mysteries of the universe.  There will be no hate or prejudice and we will all have a great love for one another. 

I've never owned a place of my own on this earth and there was a time in my life that I mourned over this fact.  But, today, I realize that no matter what we own here on earth, we can take none of it with us except that which we carry in our heart.  My place in heaven will rival and surpass the palaces in this world because it will be with God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the Saints.  Maybe, I can be on a first name basis with St. Francis of Assisi, and speak with St. Michael the Archangel about how he defeated the devil.  A tent on the edge of heaven will be infinitely better than a mansion on earth. 

So, that's what I have to say about heaven.  What are your thoughts? Feel free to share a comment below.