Not the end

Today's Scripture

Because of what Jesus does for us, and because of what He offers us, the end becomes a glorious new beginning.

The crowd asks Jesus: "what can you do?" He will answer over the course of the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John - but the quick answer is this: I can give you eternal life.

St. Stephen, who partook of the Body and Blood of Jesus that He spoke of in John's Gospel, is confronted with what appears to be a violent end to his life here on earth, but he does not see it that way at all. As a matter of fact, he doesn't see it at all. What he does see is this: "I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." He is not seeing the end of his life - he is seeing the beginning of his real life, his true life, his eternal life.

This is a vivid and clear example, but one that might seem far removed from the doldrums of our everyday lives. But if we believe in what Jesus promises - and why wouldn't we - we can be reminded daily that we are in this world but not OF it. Our true home is heaven, we are sojourners on this earth. We have to go through it, but we are not destined for it. When we have our sights set on heaven, we view other things in this world differently. Motives, perspectives, reactions and impressions are all changed when we view this as a waystation (an important one, but a waystation nonetheless) and not as the place where we truly belong.

What is different when we have this viewpoint? We know not to stake our happiness, our success, our purpose on the things of this world. Our eyes look someone else - like St. Stephen - and we know that our real home holds the key to our true happiness, actual success and real purpose.