The Last Four Things....

The Last Four Things....

We started 33 Days of Eucharistic Glory on February 23rd, and we will complete it on March 27th. I hope everyone is prayerfully reading every day. If you didn’t start, it is not too late. For any days you missed, try to catch up and complete by March 27th. The first week, the message is the Eucharist and the    Pilgrim. I am writing this message on the 3rd day, and the reading talks about The Last Four Things: Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell. It is very much connected to the Lenten season and especially the Gospel reading for the second Sunday of Lent.

Today’s Gospel from Matthew (17:1-9) narrates the transfiguration of Jesus. Jesus took Peter, James, and John to a high mountain, and transfigured before them. At the transfiguration, Jesus was conversing with Moses and Elijah, the two figures of the Old Testament law and the prophets. Jesus is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets. They talked about Jesus' New Exodus. At the first exodus, there was a lamb shed blood (Exodus 12). In the new exodus, Jesus is the new lamb who is going to shed the blood for all of humanity. The old exodus started from Egypt, traveled through the wilderness for forty years (Joshua 5:6), and reached the earthly Promised Land, and finally built Jerusalem. Jesus came to Jerusalem to begin a new exodus to lead us to the heavenly Promised Land, the New Jerusalem, heaven. His exodus is passion, death, resurrection, and ascension. It is a great exodus.

Now, let me go back to the 33 Days of Eucharistic Glory, day 3, reading reminds us that we are pilgrims here on earth and need to “live like you are dying.” God created us for lasting happiness, and it is within heaven forever. Jesus’ transfiguration took place between the prediction of the passion and the journey to Jerusalem. Jesus conversed with Moses, who died, and Elijah, who was taken up, about his passion, death, and resurrection. Also, they witnessed the surpassing glory of Jesus as the lawgiver and prophet of the New Covenant. The transfiguration tells us that death does not have the final word. The disciples were strengthened by the scandal of the Cross.

The one revealed in Glory will be the same one who comes at the Last Judgment. At the transfiguration, we hear the Father’s voice to “Listen to him.” At the transfiguration, Peter said to Jesus, "Master, it is good that we are here; let us make three tents…” Peter loved that mountain-top experience and wanted to remain there. Heaven is the state of supreme and definitive happiness, the goal of the deepest  longing for humanity (CCC1023). Hell is a state of self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed, reserved for those who reject by their own free choice to believe and convert from sin, even to the end of their lives (CCC1033).

Death leads to life, Judgment reveals the truth, Heaven fulfills the longing, Hell warns of the freedom misused. While we are on earth as pilgrims, Jesus gives us the Eucharist, food for the Journey. Every time we gather to celebrate the Eucharist, it is our opportunity to participate in Jesus’ new exodus, his passion, death, resurrection, and ascension. Every time we kneel in front of the Blessed Sacrament, we have a great opportunity to adore and praise him.

Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us about the Four Last Things:

.Every person receives his eternal recompense in his immortal soul from the moment of his death in a particular judgment by Christ, the judge of the living and the dead (CCC 1051).

Those who die in God's grace and friendship imperfectly purified, although they are assured of their eternal salvation, undergo a purification after death, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of God (1054).

Following the example of Christ, the Church warns the faithful of the "sad and lamentable reality of eternal death", also called "hell" (1056).

At the end of time, the Kingdom of God will come in its fullness. Then the just will reign with Christ forever, glorified in body and soul, and the material universe itself will be transformed. God will then be "all in all" (1 Cor 15:28), in eternal life (1060).