Our Lenten Journey with the Angels and the Saints – 25 February – “The Month of the Most Holy and Blessed Trinity” – The Second Sunday in Lent – Thessalonians 4:1-7; Matthew 17:1-9 – Scripture search here: https://www.drbo.org/
“Remember us, O Lord,
in the favour of Thy people;
visit us with Thy salvation.”
Psalm 105:4
“Lord it is good for us to be here”
Matthew 17:4
ON HEAVEN
St Alphonsus Maria de Liguori (1696-1787)
Doctor Zelantissimus
“IN this day’s Gospel we read that, wishing to give His disciples a glimpse of the glory of Paradise, in order to animate them to labour for the Divine Honour, the Redeemer was transfigured and allowed them to behold the splendour of His Countenance. Ravished with joy and delight, St Peter exclaimed: “Lord, it is good for us to be here.”
Lord, let us remain here; let us never more depart from this place; for, the sight of Thine Beauty consoles us more than all the delights of the earth!
Brethren, let us labour during the remainder of our lives to gain Heaven. Heaven is so great a good that, to purchase it for us, Jesus Christ has sacrificed His Life on the Cross. Be assured, that the greatest of all the torments of the damned in hell, arise from the thought of having lost Heaven through their own fault.
The blessings, the delights, the joys, the sweetness of Paradise may be acquired but, they can be described and understood, only by those blessed souls who enjoy them. But let us, with the aid of the holy Scripture, explain the little that can be said of them here below.
… In this life we cannot have an idea of any other pleasures than those which we enjoy by means of the senses. … Speaking of Paradise, St Bernard says: “O man, if you wish to understand the blessings of Heaven, know that in that happy country, there is nothing which can be disagreeable and everything which you can desire.”
… In Paradise, death and the fear of death are no more: in that place of bliss there are no sorrows, no infirmities, no poverty, no inconveniencies, no vicissitudes of day or night, of cold or of heat. In that Kingdom there is a continual day, always serene, a continual Spring, always blooming. In Paradise there are no persecutions, no envy, for all love each other with tenderness and each, rejoices at the happiness of the others, as if it were his own. There is no more fear of eternal perdition – for the soul confirmed in grace, can neither sin nor lose God.
… Justly, then, has St Augustine said, that to gain the eternal glory of Paradise, we should cheerfully embrace eternal labour. … The saints have done but little to acquire Heaven. So many kings, who have abdicated their thrones and shut themselves up in a cloister; so many holy anchorets, who have confined themselves in a cave; so many martyrs, who have cheerfully submitted to torments to the rack and to red-hot plates, have done but little. “The sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared to the glory to come.” (Rom 8:18) To gain Heaven, it would be but little to endure all the pains of this life.
Let us, then, brethren, courageously resolve to bear patiently with all the sufferings which shall come upon us during the remaining days of our lives: to secure Heaven, they are all little and nothing.
Rejoice then, for all these pains, sorrows and persecutions shall, if we are saved, be to us a source of neverending joys and delights.
“Your sorrows shall be turned into joy.” (John 16:20)
When, then, the crosses of this life afflict us, let us raise our eyes to Heaven and console ourselves with the hope of Paradise.
At the end of her life, St Mary of Egypt was asked, by the Abbot St Zozimus, how she had been able to live for forty seven years in the desert, where he found her dying. She answered: “With the hope of Paradise.”
If we be animated with the same hope, we shall not feel the tribulations of this life.
Have courage! Let us love God and labour for Heaven. There the Saints expects us, Mary expects us, Jesus Christ expects us – He holds in His Hand a Crown, to make each of us a king in that eternal Kingdom!” [Extracts from Sermons for all the Sundays in the Year – Lent II (1, part 2, 3, 9 & 10)]
AnaStpaul 