Friday in the Thirty-Fourth Week of Ordinary Time

“I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Rev. 21:2). The Lord Jesus has prepared a place for us in the heavenly Jerusalem, where he dwells with his Father (CF. Jn. 14:2). The city is a gift from God and not something constructed by human hands. God has done for us what we could not do for ourselves. He has built a perfect city where the elect will dwell in peace and love forever. It is beautiful to behold because it radiates the glory and majesty of its maker. All who enter the city will have access to the heart of the Father through the heart of the Son.

C.S. Lewis penned an interesting comment in his book, Mere Christianity. “A continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were the people who thought most of the next…Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in:’ aim at earth and you will get neither.” If we want to be earthly good, we have to be heavenly-sighted. Saint Paul wrote: “I press on toward the goal to win the heavenly prize of God’s upward calling in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:14). Having been drawn into communion with the persons of the Trinity, we will be liberated from bondage to corruption and death and clothed in the glory of God’s children. Then our faces will be radiant with the glow that shines on the face of Christ.

Accept our humble praise, O God.
Draw us close to your heart and fill us with your love,  
May your blessing remain with us all the days of our lives. Amen.