Our Venerable Father Maximus the Confessor (662); the Holy Martyr Neophytus (284-305); the Holy Martyrs Eugene, Candidus, Valerian, and Aquilas
Read
1 Peter 3:10-22; Mark 12:18-27
Christ is born! Glorify Him!
One of my university professors once recounted the description of heaven offered by a nun teaching Sunday school in a parish. The nun said heaven was “everyone sitting in a circle looking at Jesus” to which one young boy replied, “That’s boring…can I go and run around in the other place?”
This story highlights how the nun understood that heaven is “constant communion with God” but describes it with our limited human knowledge about eternal life.
The Sadducees did not believe in the afterlife, yet, in challenging Jesus with this exaggerated example, they make the mistake of creating heaven in the image of earth. In doing so, they run the risk of creating heaven in their own image.
And we, too, brothers and sisters, conceptualise and think of heaven in our own terms and often make it our own creation. St. Paul, quoting the Prophet Isaiah in 1 Corinthians 2:9, says: “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” (ESV). In other words, heaven is far greater than any concept this life produces. Our conceptualisation of heaven pales in comparison to its awesomeness.