Por Fr. Ed Liptak, SDB
How nice that a memory so sweet should linger over my first sick call to a home near our parish. A caring family had sent word that one of their elders was passing. When she saw me, the family elder knew why I had come. Together she and I prayed. With the last rites concluded, we continued to chat. Her dying eyes gazed into mine and she began to repeat, “I want to see Jesus. I want to see Jesus.” Great saints of the interior life have called that desire a foretaste of heaven. A devout, fearless soul was foreseeing her destiny. Her thirsting for God had thrown open for her the gates to eternal life, to Jesus.
Our readings this 32nd Week may help us to develop some of that same thirst. The first reading begs us to seek Wisdom at the start of the day, telling us to live prudently in our relationship with God. Psalm 63 which follows, shows how simple that can be, to tell ourselves on awakening, “My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.” Thus, God is in mind — We know Him, Love Him, Serve him — from the first minutes of our day. This desire is medicine for an illness of our busy world; we don’t think of God enough. Instead, Wisdom suggests:
“O God, You are my God Whom I seek.
For You my flesh pines and my soul thirsts.
My soul is thirsting for You, O Lord my God.”
(Opening Responsorial Psalm)
St. Paul speaks of the end times. To yearn to see God means to long for life without end with God. Thus, it will be. God through Jesus will first raise the dead. Then we who are alive on the last day will be caught up in the clouds and together meet Jesus. “Thus,” says Paul, “We shall always be with the Lord.” Those who have kept God in mind and by the end of their days have taught themselves to yearn for His presence will be comforted. Death can hold no evil over them.
Then, “Be wise. Be ready,” says Jesus. Stay in the state in which you want to meet Him. Don’t live foolishly in a state in which you can be barred from joining Him in Heaven. Bring the oil of your goodness with you, for He will come at an hour you know not. “Long for Me.” Others have done this, and fear has disappeared from their hearts. Be smart!
“I Want to See Jesus. I Want to See God.”.