Thursday of the Sixth Week of Easter
Acts 18: 1-8; John 16: 16-21
Dc. Larry Brockman
So, just what is “A little while” to Jesus? His disciples thought that Jesus would return in their lifetime. Even Peter and Paul thought that was the case, as their early letters indicated. It is 2000 years later, and the “little while” has not yet come to be. We are all still waiting for the second coming of Jesus. But one thing is for sure. The little while that Jesus refers to is a lot shorter than eternity.
Ah, yes- eternity- just how long is that. 60 seconds of a baby screaming seems like an eternity, doesn’t it? And sometimes it seems like it takes an eternity for water to boil; on the other hand, when you are young, it seems like an eternity before you are old enough to drive. For the person who lives 100 years- well 100 years seems like an eternity as you live it. And finally, according to Wikipedia, the age of the universe is 13.798 ± 0.037 billion years, to be precise. That is a long, long, time- longer than we can ever imagine. And so, whenever someone talks to us about life beyond life in this world, we become so fixated on the reality of our known world, and how long it has existed that we find it hard to focus on what is beyond this world.
That’s what happened in the first reading. The Jews waited several thousand years for the Messiah. He came; and they didn’t recognize him. They were focused on this world, and how to live in it not on eternity, and life in eternity.
But as long in time as some of these worldly things seem or are, they are like the bat of an eye compared to eternity. And that is Jesus point. You see, you and I are going to have to live through the baby’s cry, the water boiling, being able to drive, and for some, even a 100 year life span. And when we do, they all will seem insignificant in time once we are beyond them, as they truly are insignificant in time. But in reality, we are going to live beyond the life of the universe, because we are all going to live an eternity- which is forever. It is our choice how we choose to live out the eternity, which will, of course, dwarf all these time comparisons. No matter how long it seems to take to live out our lives living them with faith that Jesus promise of salvation and everlasting life are real, and no matter how hard it seems to follow the Gospel, along with the weeping that Jesus predicts, it all lasts for just a little while compared to eternity.
As things happen to us, they may seem like they take an eternity- like the baby crying. But they don’t. We will get beyond them with faith and hope and love. So, let us focus on what we need to do to experience the joy of eternity, rather than the trials we experience in “the little while” of our lives.
