Imagine meeting Jesus after this life is all over. Jesus asks, "Well, how was it?" And you reply, "Except for the last five minutes, it was pretty awesome."
I am imagining for a moment a life lived with the level eyes of faith and not that of the hollow men Eliot describes who wake in that other kingdom sightless, with lips that form prayers to broken stone.
I have been blessed in my life with a father and grandfather who had strong faith. Grandfather wanted to be a priest but he was told, "No, you're strong enough to work." And work he did.
I shared with my readers earlier how my grandfather asked my older brother, who just recently celebrated 50 years of priestly service, "Do you think you will become a priest?" My brother replied, "Everything looks promising."
Then grandfather said, "If only it will come to pass." He shook my brother's hand for the last time and walked away. I was told later that he wept. Two days later he died suddenly.
Grandfather Rolheiser's blurred vision saw how my brother's vocation to the priesthood would impact the spirituality of the family in the next generation and the generations to come. The faith of our German-Russian fore-fathers that had survived 148 years in Russia would bear fruit in Canada.
My father recalls the emotion he felt as his son celebrated his first Mass in the country church. "I didn't see you," he told my brother. "Every time I looked at the altar [from the choir loft], my eyes blurred."
My father and grandfather knew what it was like to stand on holy ground. They experienced moments of faith and communed with their God on a regular basis. When they met God on that first day in heaven they were not strangers. They had spent time with their God frequently.
Recently a homilist asked us, "When was the first time you saw Jesus?" It was a serious question to reflect on. I eventually settled on my childhood experience of His presence in the Christ Child who entered our home in the German Catholic tradition.
I saw the Christ Child, all dazzling and white, in garments so radiant even my mother's lye soap could not have made them that brilliant. Later I discovered other ways we see Christ in our brothers and sisters. When was the last time you saw Jesus?
If we view life with a filter of faith, mine happens to be rose-coloured, we see much more cause to be joyful than sad. The sun and joy out-weigh the rain and the tears. Viewing our lives against an infinite horizon will always enable us to recognize the moments of faith, the burning bushes in our lives.
And then there is Jesus' promise in Mark 10 when Peter asks what their reward will be for leaving everything and following their master. Jesus promises a reward of 100 fold in this world and the world to come.
I don't for a minute entertain the notion Jesus was referring to more money, houses and riches in this world. Rather he promises us a life rich in meaning, fulfillment, and the reward we will receive shortly after He asks us, "Well, how was it?"
