September 7, 2025; Wisdom 9, 13-18b; 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
What is heaven like? Boy, I wish I had ten dollars for everyone who asked me that question. Some people are just fixed on it. Will I see my mother in heaven? Will I be able to talk baseball with Babe Ruth? Will I still be able to play the piano? And, of course, is there beer in heaven to drink? But to all of these questions, my only response is, “I don’t know.” What we do know is a that heaven is a place of eternal joy with God, and that’s about it. It’s frustrating, but the question of what heaven is like is a question that is beyond our grasp. The author of the Book of Wisdom knows this. In today’s first reading he says: You cannot even understand the things of earth, so how do you imagine you going to understand the things of heaven.
So, what sense does it make to believe in something that we cannot even imagine? What confidence do we have that heaven is real? Heaven is real because God is real, and we believe that the God who is loving us today will love us forever. As people of faith, we believe that the blessings are that a part of our lives today are a foretaste, a sample, of the blessings that are to come.
When our eight-year-old surprises and delights us with a comment that is beyond her years, that is a glimpse of the surprise and delight of heaven. When we pause to take in the beauty of a perfect September day, that experience is a glimpse of the glory of God’s presence. When our family is torn by division and jealousy and after much prayer and conversation, is somehow reunited again, the peace and comfort we feel is a sample of the peace and unity of God’s house,
So, I can’t tell you what heaven is like, but I can tell you that there are signs of heaven in your life today, and that is why we must never be casual about our blessings. Moments of joy, beauty, and unity should not be taken for granted. Every time we embrace an experience of love, peace or unity, we not only gain the strength to live today, we also increase the hope that we will live forever.