In
my work as a priest, people often tell me about spiritual experiences
they have had. Sometimes they are experiences of the Lord in some
way, sometimes of someone who has died, asking for prayers, or
something like that. A lot of people do in fact have spiritual
experiences. However, often after a time, people begin to wonder
whether they really did have these experiences, or was it all in
their imagination. It is really impossible to know, and in one way it
is not even important. Usually the experience will have helped them
at that time and that is enough. It has achieved its purpose.
A
man came to me early one Saturday morning. He seemed distressed. Initially I thought he was
going to ask me for money, which is often the case, but in fact he
wanted to go to confession. He told me that the previous night a
friend of his who had died some time before, had appeared to him. He
was obviously quite shaken by the experience and he realized that he
needed to go to confession himself. It was a wake-up call for him.
Different
spiritual experiences help us to be aware of just how real the
spiritual world is, which we can become very cynical about. We will
say, ‘Yes, I believe in God, but don’t expect me to believe in
angels, or the devil, or hell.’ Why are these any more
extraordinary to believe in. If God is real, then the spiritual world
is real. That means there is an awful lot we haven’t seen and don’t
understand, but the Lord tells us that these things are real and so
we should believe in them. Jesus often spoke about the reality of
heaven, hell, Satan, angels, sin and so many other things and yet we
doubt. It’s amazing how many people doubt the existence of hell or
Satan and yet Jesus often spoke about both. If they are not real,
then the crucifixion was meaningless, because the whole point of the
death and resurrection was to make it possible for us to be able to
go to heaven, which means we could lose it, which means hell must be
real. If we lose heaven, we are left with the opposite, which is
hell.
In
the first reading today from the Acts of the Apostles—or the
‘adventures’ of the Apostles, as you might call them—Luke tells
us how after Jesus rose from the dead, He continued to appear
to the Apostles. Not just once, but many times. Why? No doubt to
convince them that they had not imagined it. One thing that He did on
at least two occasions was to eat something with them. The first time
when he appeared to them in the room, they were all standing there
speechless, and He said, ‘Do you have anything here to eat?’ So
they gave him a piece of fish and He ate it in front of them. Then
they knew it was not just a vision, but a real person, the same real
person they had known before. It was not even food that He had
brought with him, which could also have been part of a vision, but it
was something they gave him and then they watched him chew it and
swallow it. This was a beautiful and very human thing to do;
something that we could completely relate to.
Luke
also says that he not only appeared to them, but He continued to tell
them about ‘the Kingdom.’ What is ‘the Kingdom?’ What was he
telling them about? I have no doubt that He was telling them about
the reality of heaven: life with God, which He has created us for;
that it is real and that we could also lose it if we are foolish.
There we will be reunited with the people we love and we will
experience happiness there, in a way that we can not even begin to
imagine now. He was probably also explaining to them what the purpose
of his life on earth was, why He had to suffer and die the way He
did, what all this meant for the human race; God’s plan for his
people. Also He probably told them that He had a lot of work for them
to do and that they must remember that their life here on earth was a
time of service and not to worry if things were not easy, because
when their work here was done he would bring them home to be with him
again.
Notice
too, how they still didn’t understand about the kingdom of God even
though Jesus had risen from the dead. It says that they asked Jesus,
‘Now are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel?’ It was only
after they received the gift of the Holy Spirit that they began to
see the bigger picture. Until then they were still thinking in
earthly terms, political power, Israel being dominant.
Why
were they suddenly able to go out and start preaching to everyone
about a man that most people had never heard of and not only preach
about him for a while, but for the rest of their lives with passion?
I think all of them ended up being martyred, but they didn’t care,
because they knew that the only thing that was important was to be
faithful to the Lord Jesus as best they could.
Why
am I telling you all this? Because the same thing exactly applies to
us. The Apostles were real people and these are real experiences that
we are reading about. Our life on earth is just as short as theirs
was and it is also a time of service, just as theirs was. For most of
you it will be serving by looking after your families. For single
people and also for priests and religious it will be in a different
way, but that is why we are here, to learn to love, to serve, to
freely choose for or against God. However, I think it is also worth
remembering that we are living in a time when people are very cynical
and skeptical about religion and they point to the scandals as being
‘proof’ of just how hypocritical the whole thing is. We must not
let that put us off. It has always been difficult to believe and
probably always will be, but we ask the Lord himself to help us to
persevere and not become negative, or cynical. If this Gospel it says
that when Jesus appeared to them and was about to ascend to heaven,
they worshiped, ‘but some doubted.’ Even with all they had seen,
some of them still had doubts. It is normal to have doubts, but that
is why we try and keep feeding ourselves with the things that will
keep us close to God. If we fill our minds with only earthly
things—think of all that you watch on TV—then the things of
heaven can seem to be unreal. I have often noticed in Hollywood
movies, if the hero or heroine is asked if they believe in God, they
will nearly always say no. What does that tell you about Hollywood?
It is saying that only foolish people believe in God.
If
we truly believe that what awaits us is worth the sacrifice of
anything, then it doesn’t really matter what happens to us in this
life. It is only temporary. And when our time here is complete God
will come and bring us home. I have no doubt that this is probably
what Jesus was telling the Apostles about for those forty days. He
wanted them to have no doubt about why they were here, so that we
also could have a good understanding of our purpose here, through
their teaching.
God
has given us every possible help that we could ask for. If it seems
too difficult it is only because we are not using the help that He
has given us. What help? Above all, the Eucharist; the word of God;
confession, etc. It is all there waiting for us. The clearer a
picture we have in our own head as to what our life is about, the
easier it is to keep going. That is also why we needn’t be afraid
of anything in this world. If we offer ourselves to God, then why
should we be afraid? All things are in his hands.
May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened,
that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his
call.
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