“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
That was Jesus’ preaching. Jesus is God. Heaven is where God is present. God became man and called us to Himself, in heaven. But we cannot have heaven unless we repent.
In many people’s thinking, if there is a heaven, then we should all be going there, regardless of our relationship with God. Perhaps you have heard the child’s question, “Can dogs go to heaven?” It is an innocent child’s question. We should know how to respond. It is a wonderful, teachable moment.
The truth is that eternal life is only possible with God. Only God is eternal. Apart from God there is no eternal life. When we repent, we are asking God to take us back to Him, like the first parents, Adam and Eve, before their rebellion. When they rebelled they were making a choice. They wanted eternal life, but not with God. They wanted to be like God, but they didn’t want God. They separated themselves from God. That is what the Church has always understood as “Original Sin”.
When Jesus is saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”, we hear a loving God saying, “I love you, please come back to me.”
We have to ask for repentance. Repentance isn’t repentance if we don’t ask for it. Jesus was calling for conversion. Those who refused to repent Jesus called “stiff-necked”.
For the repentant, Jesus gave us the sacrament of Baptism to restore us to eternal life with him. The Pharisee Nicodemus asked Jesus about living eternally with God. Jesus told him,
“Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”
Nicodemus said to him, “How can a person once grown old be born again? Surely he cannot reenter his mother’s womb and be born again, can he?”
Jesus answered,
“Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.”
John the Baptist told his listeners the same thing that Jesus said,
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”
And he told his disciples that Jesus came to baptize with the Holy Spirit.
Repent and be baptized with water and the Holy Spirit. That is how we are reunited to God. That is how our sins are forgiven and we are saved. With repentance and baptism we are restored to the fullness of God’s creation, as His children to live with Him forever, in the kingdom of heaven.
So, when a child asks, “Can Fluffy go to heaven?” perhaps we could answer, “Has Fluffy been baptized?” I wouldn’t want to go that direction. However, the moment is right to teach the child, and to renew our own faith. Perhaps one answer could be, “Fluffy was everything God created him to be. Fluffy was never rebellious in God’s kingdom, but people are.” Perhaps the best question could be, can we be restored to God’s kingdom? God made Fluffy, too, and Fluffy never rebelled. Man did.
There can be no division in heaven. Paul made this point with the Corinthians to whom he had preached repentance and baptism, and they became among the first Christians. Now, some time after Paul has left them and gone to evangelize other people, he heard of trouble among them, divisions.
“For it has been reported to me about you, my brothers and sisters,
by Chloe’s people, that there are rivalries among you.”
Division is different from diversity. We experience diversity here in our parish. Division often brings darkness and sin, and we must confront it. Diversity makes us stronger, when we share our gifts with each other.
Paul commands the Corinthians,
“… that all of you agree in what you say,
and that there be no divisions among you,
but that you be united in the same mind and in the same purpose.”
Jesus came to gather his people and reunite them. Baptism reunites the rebellious, the separated to God.
Jesus, the Apostles and Paul did not preach to individuals, but to communities. They gathered people into communities. Jesus called them Church (Iglesia), as communities of believers, gathered together. We never see the words “diocese” or “parish” in the Bible, but these Latin-based, modern words describe our Church communities.
A parish is the community of faithful God has called together to share life on earth. As God’s faithful, we recognize the great gift God has given us by giving us the gift of eternal life in His sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist. As God’s faithful, there can be no divisions between us.
Last week we described the role of God’s faithful individuals as “parishioners”. As individual baptized persons we respond to God’s gift of life by saying to God, “Here I am Lord, I come to do your will. You can count on me.”
As God’s parish, God’s community called together in Baptism and Eucharist we are one body in Christ. As Church and parish, we are told, in the words of St. Paul,
“… that there be no divisions among you,
but that you be united in the same mind and in the same purpose.”
We are urging all parishioners to register with the parish, and formally declare you are united to the Church. We are called to support one another, for the good of one another, as parishioners of one community in Christ. We are the ones of whom the prophet Isaiah foretold,
The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom
a light has shone.
We were once in darkness, but now we have the light of eternal life. And we live as one people rejoicing in God’s favor.
I urge you to be very careful not to live divided and separated from God’s community, in the darkness of selfish, divided independence; but that there be no divisions among you.