Bringing Someone To Heaven. Can We Do That?

Can we bring our children or grandchildren to Heaven by asking God to consider only our own holiness?

Well, disregarding the prideful assumption that we ourselves are going to Heaven, how can we bring those we love, those who seem like they have rejected God, into Heaven, despite their own contrary choice?

We can’t.

But all is not lost. All our prayers, our advice, our influence is not for nothing. God will pour His grace upon those we love. He will answer our prayers.

But… we can’t do it on our own. As always, we have to rely on God. Even in the awful choices that our children make, God will always provide a door to Heaven. Wait for the Lord.

by Laura Weston, widow of Deacon Michael

IF YOU LIKE, READ ALONG WHILE YOU ARE LISTENING:

In our Collect today, part of the prayer was that we unite for a single purpose.  And the readings today are very fundamental. When you are in the first grade in school, whether you are taking English, Spanish or any other language, one of the concepts that you have to begin to understand is the first person plural [We...], and how that works with the first person singular [I...].  And in the readings today, those are very important concepts.  Part of the confusion that we can see in some of the readings sometimes is that English does not have a plural second person of You.  You and You. You is both plural and singular.  In other languages there may be some more clarity that comes from that.  [For example, Spanish has "usted" for you, singular, and "ustedes" for you, plural.]

So, what is it I'm talking about?  First, if I have a lamp, and I am walking along with a lamp and someone walks beside me they get the benefit of the lamp.  They may not have it directly in front of them, but they have the lamp [ the light from it].  What is this all about?  Why is Jesus saying that the foolish virgins who did not keep enough oil, they're excluded.  That's not the way light works.

Why isn't Jesus saying, "Well, you wise virgins and you foolish virgins, love they neighbor.  You wise ones just have one of them [the foolish ones] stand next to you and you can walk in together and you are going to show the unity of love.  You are going to show the unity of loving thy neighbor.”  This is a great story for that. 

Why isn't that the case?  What is it that is so important about the first person singular and the first person plural.  "I" and "we."  We have in every instance, we have it in that little vision statement that I have, we...we the Church...can we be one?  Can we be one in Christ?

But at the same time, I have never read about a saint who, at the moment of death, was able, through his or her own holiness, to grab onto someone else and say, "When I am dying and going to heaven, I'm going to bring you with me right now.”  The plural does not work for our salvation.  We, through God's wisdom, have the power to influence people and to work with them to become sanctified, but we cannot do it for them.  We cannot, as much as we love our children, say, "Hey God, take some of my holiness," I'll pray for them, we're not talking about pray, but “take my holiness and take my daughter, my son, my grandson into heaven." 

It doesn't work that way.  It comes ultimately down to each individual person has the responsibility, through the exercise of free will, for his or her salvation.

All of the things in the Church, all of the things through Christ, all of the things that we've had, these great, wonderful men and women over the ages, who are teaching us over the years, are designed to help me, and you, second person singular.  I cannot take George's hand and say, "George, I am going to bring you to heaven," because it is only my salvation over which I have control.

And St. Paul recognizes this in his talking about preaching to the Corinthians, and how the wise men reject the wisdom of God.  God made the wisdom of individuals, of men, collectively and singularly, foolish.  It was the will of God to save those who have faith through the foolishness of the proclamation.  Those, on an individual basis, are the ones to have faith.  The Jews demanded signs and the Greeks looked for wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified. 

That is on an individual basis that we proclaim Christ crucified and live Christ crucified.  That is the core, according to St. Paul, of his preaching.  That is the core of our proclaiming that God came to earth, wholly human and wholly divine, and us gave His Son. His Son suffered, died and resurrected.  God wholly human and wholly divine, divine in everything, died on the cross for us. 

That is an absolutely ludicrous thing.  It is not wisdom from the perspective of man.  But it is the key to the living of our lives because it is in the reality of Christ crucified that we, on an individual basis, can come to understand what He did for us and to understand His teachings.  It comes from Him on an individual basis.  He didn't bring in all his disciples and say, "Okay, you're all going to die with me at the same time and we are all going to go up to heaven and we're going to have a great big party. 

It is on an individual basis.  And it is the requirement that each and every one of us have the faith necessary.  Everything else, Jesus' life and teachings, the Bible, the holy Catholic Church, Fr. Michael, me, you...for everyone else, is all key to accomplish one single fact, and through that one single fact on an individual basis, that the unity of everything else comes.  It is because in the unity of loving God and loving neighbor and living our lives, that we become the "one" that Christ is proclaiming.  The "one" that is in the vision statement comes, not from one bringing everything else, but from the multitude of the individuals, coming together to be "we," to be the second person plural.  But it has to be done on an individual basis. 

And, like I said, this may be totally off base of what Jesus meant, and I don't understand what he meant about the lights, but it does make sense in that context.  Because the foolish virgins, unlike the wise virgins, on an individual basis, did the things that prevented them from entering into the wedding feast. 

And just like us, it is on an individual basis that we ultimately make the decision.  And it is just like what St. Paul is saying, is, he is going out and trying to bring everybody to Christ to be one in Christ, but he does it on an individual basis.  And he does it on the basis of the wisdom of Christ crucified that doesn't appeal to us as a group, that does not move us as a group, but brings us to Christ through the individual relationship that we have with God. 

So in these teachings of Christ, what we see... and it is a very difficult thing because language is so self-defining and so defining of words... we see one of the things that Jesus is actually doing is He is changing in the reality of our existence, in the nature of God, he is changing the first person singular, through His crucifixion and life, into the first person plural "we," in heaven for all eternity. 

And that is one of the lessons that is important because behind that is the wonderful command of loving God and loving neighbor, both of which are changing the individual on a love basis into the "we" of being with God and all his saints for all eternity.

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