Sept. 20, 2009: 25th Sunday Ordinary (B)
This week I gave a talk to the 9th and 10th grade PSR or CCD class. I began the class by asking, "Who has a game console like Wii, PS3, or XBox?" Most of the hands went up. "What is your favorite game on these consoles?" They were very excited about the entire topic. In fact, one student asked me, "Fr. Paul, do you play video games?" "Yes," I replied. "How cool!" And he proceeded to give me a 'bump.' If any of you have played any games on these consoles, you know that each game is subdivided into missions and levels. In each mission you are given rules to abide by to survive and to score maximum points. Most importantly, in each mission you're given a destination or an objective to achieve. Without knowing where your destination and objective is, you won't get far in your game. After telling the class all this, I showed a video interview with a lady named Sondra Abrahams.
Sondra Abrahams was a thirty-year old mother with three little children in 1970 when one of her medication caused a complication that led to her death in the emergency room. She was pronounced legally dead. She said, "I literally died on the emergency room table," she says. "I saw the doctors working on me. "All of a sudden I felt a pull, like something pulling me," she says. "And I was, like, up at the ceiling looking down and I was going through the dark tunnel. On each side of me there were little sparkly lights, like tiny firebugs all around me, and I looked up and remember seeing this light that was way down, this little bright light that, as I was getting to where I was going, was getting larger. I knew I had to go to that light, that there was safety in that light. I went into the light and it was brilliant and the Light was Christ." She met Jesus.
He embraced her, she recounts, with a love that is far beyond any love experienced in the world. Then Jesus showed her the entire account of her life, vividly as it was a three-dimensional reality. Sondra recalls Jesus asking her two questions after the review of her life. Jesus asked, "Are you sorry for all your sins?" Sondra replied, "Yes." Then Jesus asked, "Do you love me?" "Yes, Lord," she replied. Jesus then showed her heaven, purgatory, and hell. How beautiful that God gives us second chance even when we die! Sondra's experience coincides with the message that Our Lord entrusted to St. Faustina of the Divine Mercy:
"My mercy is greater than your sins and those of the entire world. Who can measure the extent of my goodness? For you I descended from heaven to earth; for you I allowed myself to be nailed to a cross; for you I let My Sacred Heart be pierced with a lance, thus opening wide the source of mercy for you. Come, then, with trust to draw graces from this fountain. Your misery has disappeared in the depths of My mercy. Do not argue with Me about your wretchedness. You will give me pleasure if you hand over to me all your troubles and griefs."
Yet, are there souls who say 'no' to both questions? Yes. She was also shown a young man whose life unfolded before her from childhood to his death in his early adulthood. Lord showed her how much He loved him and showered grace upon him throughout his life. Yet his choices reflected otherwise. In his teenage years, he was cruel to animals and to others. He frequently cursed God and others. After a sudden motorcycle death, he was carried through a tunnel and stood before Jesus. Jesus asked the same two questions that Sondra was asked, "Are you sorry for all you sins? Do you love me?" The man began to curse Jesus; he didn't want anything to do with Jesus. As she told this, Sondra cried, "Did he think that his life was just a game? How could he curse Jesus even when he gives him one last opportunity?" It's not God who chooses where we go, it's us, Sondra said.
Why was Sondra sent back? She said, "When I saw my soul, I knew I didn't belong in Heaven.
My soul was dark gray. When I looked to heaven and saw the souls and how radiant they were, I knew I couldn't stay. It was just beautiful. I knew I couldn't stay, even though I wanted to." And Jesus gave her a mission to tell people about what she has seen.
As I finished showing this video to the class, my hope was that a seed was planted. First I wanted to let them know how much God desires for them to live a life of love for Him and for our neighbor and not of selfishness. Secondly, I wanted let them know that our destination or objective is heaven, nothing less. And accordingly we need to live a life that reflects our destination.
What's your reaction to Sondra's experience? Too fantastic to be true? Yet, we feel drawn to what Sondra has to say, don't we? The 9th and 10th graders watching this video certainly were drawn to her testimony.
It is easy for us to adopt the rules of life this earth teaches us. Yet many are contrary to what Jesus taught in the gospels. For example, in Matthew Jesus said, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven." Jesus is trying to shake us out of our misconception that the game rules of this earthly world apply to the heavenly world. Jesus' disciples were not immune to this misconception. In today's gospel, the disciples were playing one of the favorite game rules of this earth--arguing amongst themselves who was the greatest. Jesus then teaches them that they should really be concerned with the heavenly rules. He said, "“If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” St. James also contrasts earthly versus the heavenly rules in our Second Reading. "Beloved: Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every foul practice. But the wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without inconstancy or insincerity." Then he says, "Where do the wars and where do the conflicts among you come from? Is it not from your passions that make war within your members? You covet but do not possess. You kill and envy but you cannot obtain; you fight and wage war. You do not possess because you do not ask. You ask but do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions."
I have an assignment for you. When you go home and to your work place, will you write down the following two questions on a post-it note? "Are you sorry for all your sins? Do you love Me?" And place these post-it notes by your bedside, by your computer, and on your refrigerator door. I hope this sticky note will remind us to live today as if we're going to see Jesus, today.
