What Are You Looking For? Part 1: The Nicene Creed

And the Life of the World to Come. Amen.

And the Life of the World to Come.  Amen.

            We’ve now come to the end of the Nicene Creed.  (Don’t worry, next week we start looking at The Celebration of the Christian Mystery section of the Catechism.)  And like all things in our mortal, physical world, it ends with the promise of more.  That may sound odd to you, but this life does end with the promise of more.  It ends with the promise of heaven for all who believe in Jesus. That is the promise of a future so blessed we can’t even begin to imagine it.  When all is said and done, when the resurrection of the body has happened, that’s when we truly enter into the life of the world to come.  “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth.  The former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.  I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.  I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, God’s dwelling is with the race.” (Revelation 21:1-3 NABRE)

            That’s pretty much all we know.  We know there will be no sickness, no sorrow, and no death.  The entire world, the entire universe, will be made new.  We will all have our glorified bodies.  Beyond that, no one can really say for certain what that world will be like.  But it’s fun to imagine.        

            Growing up, I had the image in my head of everyone sitting on clouds and playing harps all day.  That might be fun for a few centuries, but then it would get kind of boring.  Then there were those in my Protestant tradition who described eternity as standing around the throne of God singing praises forever.  Fun for a few millennia, but…not exactly what I want to do forever.  (No offense to God, or those who think that would be the most fun ever.)  What I think is that we will each do a lot of different things; according to the things we’re passionate about here.  Singers will sing.  Musicians will play.  Builders will build.  And me?  I will be the most annoying pest St. Augustine, St. Paul, St. Thomas Aquinas and all the other great thinkers have ever seen.  St. Francis De Sales, in his Treatise on Divine Love, said that since God’s perfections are infinite, no matter how much time we have here or in heaven we will never know all there is to know about them, or God, since he is his perfections.  That means for all of eternity there will always be something more to learn about God and his perfections.  And I figure all those Saints have had a long head start on me, so they must know more than I will.  To have all of eternity to sit around and pick their brains would be, well, heaven.  Because the more we know about God, the more we love God. 

            Whatever that new heaven and new earth will look like, one thing is certain.  God will be there.  We will see him face to face.  We, our world, and our universe will be fully restored to everything God intended man and our world to be before sin entered the world.  “What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him.”  (1 Corinthians 2:9)

Amen

I Believe

“May your Creed be for you as a mirror.  Look at yourself in it, to see if you believe everything you say you believe.  And rejoice in your faith each day.” (CCC 1064)