“Well, in today’s second reading from Saint Paul, the Philippians say our citizenship is in Heaven. Well, in my early years as a priest, the archdiocese had an Immigration Law Department. Mostly it was to get visas for priests and nuns to come in. And, you know, occasionally it would help some parishioners as well. I learned immigration law, and there’s three main things you have to do.
Number one, prove where you’re from. Number two, someone has to sponsor you. It can be family or a business or a church. Three, time of good behavior. Don’t break the law; pay your taxes, be an upstanding citizen, and then you can become a citizen. Three main steps. Well, those three main steps are also the three main steps in acquiring our citizenship into Heaven.
The first part is to prove where you’re from. Well, you know, in the civil life you need a birth certificate. But for Heaven, it’s a Baptism certificate. Part two – someone has to vouch for you. Well, that’s easy enough. It’s the two godparents that vouch for you. And you were baptized. That takes care of the vouching part.
The good behavior is what we do and say and how we conduct ourselves throughout the rest of our lives. The Gospel reading lets us know that those who walk with the Lord and treat others with kindness prove that this really matters, that we really want that citizenship in Heaven. And when I’ve given eulogies or listened to those of you who gave the eulogies, they all have one big thing in common: no one ever mentions how much money the person made, or how much stuff they acquired. It never comes up. What comes up? Well, they were there for the kids sporting events and they never missed their grandpa’s game. They were always there to help their neighbor, and they go out of their way to do something. They volunteer here, volunteer there, they show that the love they received was being shared to other people in many, many, many different ways.
That is what I was given when I asked you to write things down. That’s the stuff you said uniformly, because we know that’s what really matters in life. I mean, we need stuff to live, but we don’t live for stuff. We live because God gave us this beautiful gift and we want to share that gift to others.
That gift can be shared through kindness, appreciation, and good works. Today, as we commemorate all those names on the banners and all our loved ones here today, those are the memories we remember. Because that’s what really lasts. That’s what’s important. And the more good memories we have, the more we’re inspired.
In our time on this earth, be kind and giving and generous and compassionate to others. That’s what it means to be a Christian. You have the courage to accept the love of God, and then the courage to share that love with others.”
~ Fr. Joseph Gembala
