Not Yet Honey

Wanting to see Jesus sooner rather than later

10/29/2017

Matthew 22:34-40 When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a scholar of the law tested him by asking, "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" He said to him, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments."

       A very excited five year old boy was going to take his first flight on an airplane. As they found their seats and buckled up, the boy asked his mother: “Are we flying yet?” The mother smiled and said, “No, honey, not yet.” He got really excited when he heard the engines start up and asked, “Are we flying yet?” The mom assured him, “Not yet, dear.” As the commercial plane taxied down the runway he asked anxiously, “Are we flying now?” Mom again assured him, “Not yet, honey.” Finally, the plane took off and flew into the bright blue sky and the boys’ eyes were glued to the window, and he gasped, “Are we flying now?” Mom smiled and said, “Yes we are, dear.” The boy saw the clouds pass below them, and asked: “We are flying into heaven! Are we going to see Jesus?” And the mom said, “I sure hope not.”

         Now, I’d like to pause and ponder the mother’s answer for a moment with you. The mother’s answer is humorous, but it’s also serious. Why? Well, because her mother’s mind knows what it would take to see Jesus, namely, a crash landing. Under the circumstances, I suspect most of us would have said the same thing. We’d love to see Jesus someday, but maybe not today, “not yet, honey.” Ask yourself further: what are the things that keep you from wanting to leave this world and seeing Jesus in heaven right now? Or, put the question this way: what people or things or experiences would you like to enjoy before you see Jesus?

        Maybe you’re working and looking forward to retirement and travel. You’d like to do that before you meet Jesus. Or, maybe you’re young or unmarried and would like to get married before you meet Jesus. Maybe you are a parent and want to walk your daughter down the aisle on her wedding day. Heck, you probably won’t let her get married until she’s fifty years old anyway, so you might see Jesus before that happens! Maybe you’d like to see the Razorbacks win another National Championship like they did in 1964, but at this rate you-know-what might freeze over before they do. Maybe you look forward to Saturday “College Game Day” more than you look forward to seeing Jesus at Mass on Sunday. Or there’s some family reunion, or vacation, or bucket list item you’d like to complete before you see Jesus.

        Of course, all these dreams and desires are good and godly, but should we desire them more than we desire to see Jesus? Or put it this way: when you get to heave will you miss these things of earth? Will you have regrets in heaven? C. S. Lewis said: “He who has God and everything else has no more than he who has God only” (Essay, “The Weight of Glory”). In other words, when we possess God – or better, when God possesses us – we will not need or want or desire anything else. He or she who has God has everything else, too. God is the fulfillment of every one of our human desires, and even the fulfillment of desires we haven’t even started to feel yet. To think we’ll miss earth when we’re in heaven is to have an exaggerated opinion of earth and a very homely opinion of heaven; we don’t know the God we’re dealing with.

        In the gospel today, Jesus answers a Pharisee who asks a very good question, namely, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” Jesus explains that the greatest commandment is the following: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” In other words, we should love nothing else as much as we love God: not our retirement plans, not our future wedding, not a national championship trophy. When we have an opportunity to love God, we should not say, “not yet, honey,” and pursue some other good first.

       Again, these things are not bad, indeed God made them for our happiness. But he did not intend for us to love them more than we love him, or to love them more than we love his Son, Jesus Christ. The point is not “either-or” – either we love God or we love created things. After all, Jesus added that the second commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself.  But rather the choice is “both-and,” and to put an even finer point on it, we’d say it’s “first-second.” That is, first we should love God, and secondarily should we love everything else.

        Now, you might be asking yourself: what difference does any of this make practically speaking? This is all just philosophical mumbo-jumbo; it’s just a distinction without a difference. Well, the next time your 5 year-old ask you if we’re going to see Jesus, your answer should not be, “Not yet, honey,” but rather, “I sure hope so.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!