I want to send you all to HEAVEN!
There
was never a sermon quite like that given on August 2, 1216.
St. Francis mounted a makeshift pulpit set up before the tiny chapel of St. Mary of the Angels outside of
Assisi to announce to the assembled crowd the granting of the famed Porziuncula Indulgence.
The enthusiasm in his voice matched the fire in his heart as the Little Poor Man began by proclaiming:
Everyone longs for happiness – and St. Francis knew where it
could be found for all eternity.
HEAVEN:
the
perfect life with the Most Holy Trinity this communion of life and love with the Trinity, with the Virgin Mary,
the angels and all the blessed… the ultimate end and fulfillment
of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive
happiness.
Catechism #1024
HEAVEN was always on Francis’ mind.
Not just the starry firmament, but that HEAVEN which
by
His death and Resurrection Christ has opened
to us.
Catechism
#1026
To
live in HEAVEN is to be with Christ.
Catechism #1025
And
where Christ is, there is joy and light, peace and grace.
The
life of the blessed consists in the full and perfect possession of the fruits of the
Redemption accomplished by Christ.
Catechism #1026
Look to HEAVEN which beckons us
on, wrote St. Clare to one of her spiritual daughters.
Like St. Francis, like
St. Paul , the
Seraphic Mother knew that
the
sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared with the glory
that will be revealed in us,
in HEAVEN, in
God’s
own place
where
we
shall rest and see, we shall see and love, we shall love and praise
for
all eternity. St.
Augustine