The Joy of Heaven

Composed by:  Br. Paul
 
The other day, while I was at work, Facebook sent me a reminder that my Sister’s birthday was coming up on October 30th.  I said to myself, “That’s not right.  Her birthday is the 29th.”  So when I got home, I looked in the front pages of my “good” Bible, where years ago I had written down all of the important dates about my family members and sure enough, there was her birthday, October 29th.  I felt relieved that I didn’t have to call her and ask the embarrassing question:  “Ah, when is your birthday, Sis?”
 
While I was sitting there with the Bible open, I noticed a large stack of prayer cards, newspaper obituary clippings and funeral programs of family and friends that I have collected over the years and I decided to arrange them in some kind of order.  As I looked and read each one, I started to get a little teary-eyed.  The ones that had the person’s picture on them caused the most heartache.
 
Then I remembered All Souls Day was coming up on November 2d and these were some of the very people I would be remembering in my prayers that day.  Some of these loved ones I had not thought of in a long time and when I saw their names, it was a shock.  It was almost like hearing about their death for the first time.
 
But death does not have the final word.  As I put the clippings and prayers cards back into my Bible, I thought of the joy they must be having in heaven.  I thought of the hope I have in Christ that someday, I too may be found worthy to enjoy the Beatific Vision along with family and friends.

Image: Gustave Doré,  Illustration to Dante’s The Divine Comedy, Paradiso, “Vision of the Empyrean”