Our citizenship is in Heaven

 

Deacon Kevin Gingras

March 16, 2025

Second Sunday of Lent

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031625.cfm

Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18    Psalm 27:1, 7-8, 8-9, 13-14

Philippians 3:17—4:1    Luke 9:28b-36

St. Paul, in his first letter to those Roman folks living in northeastern Greece in the city of Philippi, says exactly what I want to get across today:

Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it, we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will change our lowly body to conform with his glorified body.

Paul is emphasizing the second and final return of Christ that we today still wait patiently and prayerfully for when we will be joined to our glorified bodies that Christ portrays in today’s Gospel:

While Jesus was praying, his face changed in appearance, and his clothing became dazzling white.

So not only will our bodies be glorified but our clothes will be quite clean to boot!  Today’s Gospel really juxtaposes Jesus's physical and spiritual nature quite nicely.  Last week, we heard of Jesus out in the desert for forty days without food.  He then was tempted by Satan.  Jesus, in his humanity, was hungry, but he won that battle with Satan. As a sidenote, yes, you can live without food for forty days. I Google it:

In extreme cases, some people have survived for over 60 days without food

Now, on to us, how do we fare during temptations from Satan or hardships that our physical nature must endure? Which one calls us harder, the physical or spiritual?  It is truly an ongoing battle with Satan!  We must win!

The Transfiguration illustrates to us what we were designed to be; we are designed for glorified bodies in Heaven.  Unfortunately, for a brief span of time, we are stuck here on earth, and we are not designed to be of this earth. Earthly bodies have negative emotions and pain, both physical and mental.  Earthly bodies require maintenance, exercise, water, food, and diet.  When it comes to trying to diet or fast, a piece of pie always draws me in! I almost always respond more to the physical. 

When it comes to pain, I respond to its physical earthly nature very quickly.  Fr. David’s homily struck me last week when he talked about banging your head.  That very Saturday morning, I was working on the bottom of my garage door, so I had it mostly up but not all the way.   Three times, I turned quickly and banged my head against the door.  On the third time, I actually told God to send the garage door to the abode of Satan!  I quickly realized the garage door did nothing to me.  I’m the one who put it at that height; I’m the one who turned quickly to get something and hit my head against it.  I laughed a bit and said a quick Hail Mary, asking for more patience and forgiveness for my sin!  

We see the physical, we feel the physical, just ask my head!  Unfortunately, humans rarely see or feel the spiritual.  I came across an article that said that the boundaries of human vision are not exact and may vary between individuals.  The visible light range is a small portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, making up only about 0.0035% of it.  We only see 0.0035% of what’s out there!  Imagine if we could see more of it, even 2% of it!  Abram experienced the spiritual, which is visually represented in the first reading.  Cutting up animals and walking between them was a way to ratify contracts in those days and was common.  What God did with Abram was ratify a covenant.  God was the smoking fire pot and flaming torch that passed between the animal halves ratifying his covenant with Abram.

Now imagine what we would see if we could when Heaven and Earth meet during the Eucharistic Prayer and consecration!  Imagine how strong our spiritual life would become then!  It might even beat the physical life!

Most of us have probably experienced some physical hunger on Ash Wednesday a few weeks ago. What about spiritual hunger?  That should be stronger. Imagine if you couldn't get to church to receive the Eucharist for a period of time. It was almost five years ago that we had just such an experience during the COVID lockdown. Please, God, may we never experience that again!  During that time, did you feel a spiritual hunger?  Did you hunger for Mass and the Eucharist? 

As this Lent progresses on, ask the Holy Spirit to give you a hunger for Mass, a hunger for the Eucharist, a hunger for the sacrament of Confession, and a hunger to spend time with our Lord and Savior in Adoration.  Ask the Holy Spirit to give you that desire so that your soul may be nourished as we approach Holy Week.  Pray to Saint Michael, asking him to defend us in battle.  Remember that our bodies are only here on earth for a short span of time and that “our citizenship is in Heaven” and that time is eternity!

Saint Augustine reminds us to:

Take care of your body as if you were going to live forever; and take care of your soul as if you were going to die tomorrow.

Dual Citizenship

 

Kevin Gingras

October 18th, 2020 - 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/101820.cfm

When we adopted our daughter Faith from Wuhan China, yes, Wuhan, good things can come from Wuhan!  Anyway, nothing really became official until we finished up our trip to Guangzhou and were sworn in as her parents.  At the agency in Wuhan, they even told us it’s a trial run at first, kind of like test driving a used car!  God already had told us that she was our daughter but things needed to be made official.

She became an official citizen of the United States the second our plane touched down in California.  Later, in New Bedford, we filled out an American version of paperwork to officially adopt her in the United States.  It wasn’t necessary but it would make life easier for her to have an American Birth certificate.  These were very important dates for her citizenship but they don’t compare to February 21, 2010.  That was the date of her baptism.  This was the most important part of her adoption process, citizenship into the family of God.  Something she would have never received in Communist China.

You see, we all have dual citizenship, by our birth we became a citizen of an earthly nation but by our baptism we became citizens of a heavenly Kingdom.

Earthly kingdoms will have an end.  Our heavenly citizenship will last forever, eternity.  My wife says being married to me for so long is like an eternity, she has no idea!  Eternity is so much longer than that!

Dual citizenship is what struck me in today’s Gospel: 

He said to them, "Whose image is this and whose inscription?" They replied, "Caesar's." At that he said to them, "Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God."

Caesar's image is on the coin so pay the tax, give to Caesar what has his image on it, it belongs to him.  We also should give to God what belongs to God. God’s image is on us.  We belong to him, give to God what belongs to God! 

As it is written in Genesis 1:27:

God created mankind in his image; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

Our reading from Isaiah carries this even further:

I have called you by your name, giving you a title, though you knew me not. I am the LORD and there is no other, there is no God besides me.

God created us and in doing so also placed His divine image within us.  Our dual citizenship into the family of God was made official at our baptism.

CCC 1213 states:

Holy Baptism is the basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the Spirit, and the door which gives access to the other sacraments. Through Baptism we are freed from sin and reborn as sons of God; we become members of Christ, are incorporated into the Church and made sharers in her mission

We need to reflect on how we are doing in giving to God what belongs to him.  God doesn’t just want your presence here in the pews or watching Mass online on Sundays.  God wants your presence at church of course, but also at work, at home, at the game, in other words, all the time.  

St. Paul reminds the Thessalonians that they are called out specifically by God and even strengthened yet still even though Christ had already left the earth as he writes:

before our God and Father, knowing, brothers and sisters loved by God, how you were chosen. For our gospel did not come to you in word alone, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with much conviction.

This week we all should pray to the Holy Spirit to ask for that conviction to help us repay to God what belongs to God.  It isn’t easy and that is why we need the Holy Spirit’s help to take God with us when we leave here today and bring him with us everywhere by our actions, what we say and do and also by what we DON’T say and DON’T do.  Know that God is there with us, we just have to always remember His presence.  Focus on our divine vocation while carrying out our earthly jobs and tasks to make our life on this planet so much more fulfilling.

Pope Saint John Paul the II says it well:

"Jesus has a specific task in life for each and every one of us. Each one of us is hand-picked, called by name by Jesus! There is no one among us who does not have a divine vocation!"

Aim for Heaven

June 21, 2020 - 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year A

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/062120.cfm

Happy Father’s Day and first day of Summer!

In our first reading today the prophet Jeremiah is in dire straights.  Very important people and even his former friends are conspiring against him and seeking to have him put to death for speaking the truth, not the truth that Jeremiah’s opinion tells him, no the absolute truth of God.  This has brought the prophet near the point of despair but he still remains confident in God as the reading ends with:

Sing to the LORD, praise the LORD, for he has rescued the life of the poor from the power of the evildoers!

Jeremiah’s zeal and trust in God’s Justice are what give him his desire to see God’s vengeance and revenge play out when he says “Let me see the vengeance You take on them for to you I have entrusted my cause.”   Are there times when we desire to take out our own vengeance on people?  Do we lack the trust in God’s heavenly reward, and also heavenly punishment?  We must never let the sins of others cause us to sin and that’s exactly what seeking our own vengeance does, it becomes a twofold sin, first off is not trusting in God to properly deal with the wrongdoings of others but also our act of vengeance can be sinful.  It’s like my old shop teacher and drivers ed instructor Mr. Bradley used to say:

When driving down the road, if the car coming towards you has their high beams on, quickly turn your lights off and on instead because if you flash your high beams at them you now have two blind idiots driving towards each other!

When it comes to us being “blind idiots” we have Adam and Eve to thank for that as the second reading from Romans tells us.  

Through one person sin entered the world, and through sin, death, and thus death came to all, inasmuch as all sinned.

Really it was the sin of both Adam and Eve, the original sinners that we are all labeled with due to their disobedience of God.  Thus we needed two people to reverse their sin.  In comes Mary and Jesus to undo what was done.  Adam and Eve said yes to the serpent, also known as Satan, and Mary and Jesus said yes to God.  Jesus is the new and improved Adam and Mary is the new and improved Eve.  Adam and Eve brought sin into the world and Jesus and Mary brought down the grace of God for everyone to open paradise once again to us all.  That paradise is no longer on Earth but instead is in Heaven where we can have that eternal life that Jesus won for us, that God so long ago promised for us. 

Heaven isn’t guaranteed as some would like us to believe, no, just read today’s Gospel and you will know the truth of it all.

And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.

It is often said that Jesus tells us to not fear 365 times in the bible.  That’s once for each day of the year unless, like 2020, the year of such fun, it’s also a leap year with 366 days, then randomly pick one day to not apply that saying!

Very rarely does Jesus tell us to fear so when He does we need to pay attention!  Who do we need to fear?  Who is the one when Jesus says:

Be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.

That one is he who the Church Lady from Saturday Night Live would say, is “perhaps… Satan!”.  Gehenna in biblical times was also the “Valley of Ben-Hinnom” most likely in Jerusalem so the people of Jesus’ time would be familiar with this place.  Horrible things were done here I’m not going to go into details but you can read Jeremiah chapter 19 to find out. Anyway, Jesus is referring to eternal damnation and suffering when he refers to Gehenna so we must avoid that at all costs.  We must, as 1 Peter states:

Be sober and vigilant. Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for [someone] to devour. Resist him, steadfast in faith, knowing that your fellow believers throughout the world undergo the same sufferings.

We should strive to do what today’s Gospel says to gain eternity in peace and love with God in paradise and it sounds so simple.  Just acknowledge who Jesus is!

Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.

Our current state of the world makes this hard but let’s not shoot low and aim for Purgatory, no instead aim bigger, it's what God wants for us. Aim to become Saints in Heaven for as C.S. Lewis warned:

Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’; aim at earth and you will get neither.