Why hope?

I’ve been wanting to share this Bishop Robert Barron‘s Sunday homily with you for a while. Today, as I type this, I finally have the chance to share these insightful, edifying thoughts on the 1st and Gospel readings from the good bishop.

In this homily, we learn or are reminded, depending on who you are, that our hope is founded on the Resurrection of Jesus. Yes, we know He’s coming back, but Jesus is coming back in the same body that was resurrected from the dead on the 3rd day. It will be a glorified body, but the same Person is coming back. It won’t be some spiritualized being. Our spirit will certainly be present within us, but our bodies will be there, too. We are all going to be resurrected. And then we get to spend eternity with the Lord.

Some people, the saints, get to be spiritually present with God soon or immediately after death. Most of us have to wait a while. And some of us won’t die before Jesus comes back maybe, but we will all be who we are now, with the glory of God unimpeded by our hubris, our cynicism, our obtuseness, our stubbornness, or our unbelief. And when we are filled with God’s glory and in His presence unveiled and no longer obscured by our mortality, we will know firsthand that we are infinitely loved, we will know Love in a way we can only superficially experience here and now. Even our best days, ever our most joyful moments cannot compare to our existence in our Heavenly, everlasting Home in the Presence of our Lord God.

This is where our hope comes from as Christians. Jesus died, yes, and for each of us! He redeemed us, bought us back, with His very Life. And when the Lord of life makes that Sacrifice, it is earth shattering. But then the Resurrection and Ascension complete the Gift of eternity with our Triune God!

No Resurrection, no hope. It’s a package deal, though! One great event leads to the next and all must occur in their proper order and time to have effect. Consider these words of Jesus:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

I am the Resurrection and the Life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies: and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.

I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life…

For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. ²⁶ And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the story about the bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? ²⁷ He is God not of the dead, but of the living; you are quite wrong.”

These are just some of the reasons why we have hope. But, of course, the best reason and the only one we really need is Jesus Christ’s own Resurrection from the dead.

Listen to Bishop Barron’s homily to get even more understanding of why we work for the betterment of people’s lives here and now. People who live with hope in forever live with purpose every day. We need not wonder why we’re here or where we’re going.
God loved each of us into being and He wants us with Him forever. People who have hope have Jesus and they want to emulate Him and keep His commands. Like all great truths, it’s really very simple.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-reality-of-life-after-death/id75551187?i=1000584663644