Living Towards Heaven

Seventh Sunday of Easter. Fr Joseph Bailham reminds us that to be in heaven is to be caught up in the relationship that is God.

The overarching theme across the readings today is that of communion. To be in communion is in a certain sense to be at one with another. The model of communion for us is that highlighted by Jesus in the Gospel today. He speaks at length about the communion between the Himself and God the Father. He’s making known to us the oneness of his being as Son with the Father. Jesus is showing that his identity is that of God, the Divine Nature which He, the Father, and the Holy Spirit all have. God is a unity. The hallmark of that unity is the bond of love. God in Himself is a communion of love.

When we look at the world, we see all sorts of groups held together by a common belief, or common principles; or sometimes groups and individuals are brought together by a shared enemy. But this is not so at the heart of God. God is held together—so to speak—by love.

That love of God spills over into creation in a particular way when God becomes flesh in the person of Jesus. That love in a world like ours, plagued by sin, takes on the particular identity of salvation. God’s love for us is salvation, of saving us from a path that leads away from our true destination, namely life with God; or better still, life in God. Because when we speak of heaven, we will often think of a place, somewhere up in the sky. But of course, heaven is outside of time, it’s not a place as such; heaven more properly speaking is a description of a relationship. That relationship is humanity and God in perfect communion with each other. Heaven is humanity coming to share in the life of God which is that perfect communion of love. Heaven is eternal life because God himself with whom we will be united is eternal life itself. This is our destination.

Everything that Jesus says, everything that Jesus does and that we read about in the Gospels, is geared towards getting us to that destination. When we know of the destination, and what Christ desires, we begin to see the life of Christ in a new light. He shows us that come good or bad, all can be used to foster that communion between us and God here and now, a preparation and foretaste of that lasting communion we will share in heaven, and which Christ enjoyed on earth as both human and divine.

In the first reading we heard of the martyrdom of St Stephen, the Church’s first martyr. Death for so many is the end. And yet St Stephen sees heaven thrown open before him, and there sees the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. In moment of what could be an experience of desolation and isolation, what St Stephen sees is communion, he sees the communion that is the life of God, and which through his death he will come to share fully very shortly.

Of course, the feeling of desolation and isolation are not experiences only associated with death. Many of us experience such things in our ordinary lives. Sometimes within ourselves we can feel a certain division or disconnectedness. We might recognise different desires in us that contradict or run up against each other. In many ways this is the story of our spiritual lives as we seek to grow in holiness. We desire to do and be good, and yet come up against our weakness and sinful habits.

Perfect communion with God is something we aspire and long for when our earthly life concludes, but our life now is an opportunity to build up that communion of loving unity which is the life of God. To speak about our growing in holiness, of becoming holy, is to speak of healing the divisions that exist within us, the competing desires, the sins that direct us away from God. To speak of holiness is to speak of our human nature and life becoming more like that of Christ’s, a life and human nature in perfect communion with Godself.

But none of us are God like Christ was and is. We cannot become holy or establish that communion with God by ourselves. We can only do it with God’s help.

Let us rest in that thought and meditate in our prayer those words of Jesus to the Father in our Gospel today once again: ‘I have given them the glory you gave to me, that they may be one as we are one. With me in them and you in me, may they be so completely one that the world will realise that it was you who sent me and that I have loved them as much as you loved me.’ Amen.

Readings: Acts 7:55-60 | Apocalypse 22:12-14,16-17,20 | John 17:20-26

Appeal for Help

Good News! The Dominican Friars in Britain are having a vocations surge, with up to 8 men joining in September 2025 (including 2 from Jamaica).

Friends, we need your assistance: High-quality formation is essential to being a Dominican, but our funds are stretched, so we urgently need more support. To do this we are launching the St Dominic’s Formation Fund annual appeal.

Find out how you can help: www.english.op.org/formation