Overview:

Tuesday of the Seventh Week of Easter

A Reflection for Tuesday of the Seventh Week of Easter

Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ. (Jn 17:3)

Find today’s readings here.

Heavenly. We often use the word to describe those things that are particularly serene or delicious, or events that are wonderful and help us to forget about the troubles of this world for a moment. Perhaps a walk through a sun-dappled forest, a breathtaking view from a mountain, a moment beside a loved one, an especially good ice cream sundae. 

I have used the word myself, and I don’t doubt that these things offer glimpses of what is to come. But the common use of the word also demonstrates how often we rely on using earthly terms to imagine the afterlife. Today’s Gospel reminds us that, as much as we like to imagine what heaven will be, the core of what is promised to us is based in something we can’t yet grasp: what it means to truly know God. 

Here on earth we glimpse God’s love in all that we deem heavenly. We may feel God’s love as a comfort in difficult moments, as a presence permeating the best ones. But even as we work to build the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, God remains a mystery to us. 

But in this passage from John’s Gospel, we are promised a more intimate knowledge of the one who made us and already knows us. To truly know God must be, well, heavenly. But until that moment, I will settle for the glimpses here on earth. 

When she was small, my middle daughter said to me, “I think heaven is a big line of saints and you see all the people you love, and all the toys you love, and there are hearts everywhere.”

Hearts everywhere, indeed.

Kerry Weber joined the staff of America in October 2009. Her writing and multimedia work have since earned several awards from the Catholic Press Association, and in 2013 she reported from Rwanda as a recipient of Catholic Relief Services' Egan Journalism Fellowship. Kerry is the author of Mercy in the City: How to Feed the Hungry, Give Drink to the Thirsty, Visit the Imprisoned, and Keep Your Day Job (Loyola Press) and Keeping the Faith: Prayers for College Students (Twenty-Third Publications). A graduate of Providence College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, she has previously worked as an editor for Catholic Digest, a local reporter, a diocesan television producer, and as a special-education teacher on the Navajo reservation in Arizona.