Robert Barron - How Not to Think About Heaven
Peace be with you. The parable that's at the heart of our Gospel today from Matthew 20 is one that I love, because based on thirty-seven years of preaching, it's one of those passages in the New Testament that really bothers people. I could pick out a handful, like four or five; the Martha/Mary story is another one. But this is one that over all the years I've been preaching, more people come up to me and say, "Father or bishop, I don't get that parable," or, "It really bothers me. How could this be right? I don't know what Jesus is talking about here".
Well see, I love that, because it proves something very interesting, that the parable itself is doing its spiritual work. What I mean is it's not just conveying correct information about God. So some parables, they teach us truth about God, and that's great. But other ones, they reach into our souls. They bug us because it's a bit like a surgeon, I suppose, doing exploratory surgery, that in this process he uncovers difficulties in the body. Well, this parable is like that in regard to the soul. It unmasks or it sheds light upon certain darknesses in our soul, certain resistances to God.
So it's very interesting and important to follow our resistance here. Where's that coming from? How come I don't like this parable? How come this parable bugs me? Well, you know what I'm talking about now, this parable about the kingdom of heaven being like a landowner who went out and hired workers for his vineyard first thing in the morning. And he said, "I'll pay you the daily wage". They said, "Great". So they work all day in the hot sun. Others, he goes out at noon, hires them, same deal, others at three, and then finally at the very end of the day, he hires workers. And then the time comes for payment. And those hired at the very end of the day who worked for only an hour get the daily wage.
So naturally, the ones hired earlier think, "Hey, this is great. I'll be getting more". But they get the same wage as those hired at five. And even those who were hired at nine and worked all day in the hot sun, they get the same thing, and they squawk. "Well, this is unfair. It's unjust. These people worked for one hour. I worked for eight hours. Why are we getting paid the same"? Well, of course everyone sees the connection to the spiritual life. Let's say you've been at it your whole life long, honoring God and doing what you're told to do and trying to be a good person and following the commands of the Church.
And suppose there's somebody who at the very end of life, after living a terrible life of dissolution or violence, deep sin, at the very end repents. Is that right that they get the same reward as you would get? You both get to heaven? I remember hearing this story from an older priest friend of mine. This goes back to the 1930s or '40s, and there was a notorious gangland hitman in Chicago. I mean, one of the worst people you can imagine, someone whose whole life is dedicated to killing people. And he was involved in some shootout, and he's lying in the street dying. He was a Catholic, though, and he had the presence of mind to ask for a priest to come. And the priest came, and with his dying breaths, this man confessed his sins and then died.
And the priest was asked about it, and he said, "Well, yeah, I'm sure he'll acquire purgatory, but yes, this man will go to heaven just as St. Francis of Assisi went to heaven". And evidently, this older priest friend told me, it caused a real furor in the press, people writing letters and complaining. How could this be true that this hitman, this terrible person, just with one simple confession, he'll get the same heaven that St. Francis gets? Doesn't seem right. It doesn't seem fair or just. I'll give you an example from the Scriptures. How about the good thief Dismas? In fact, we call him St.Dismas, don't we? We don't know anything about him, but his life ends on a Roman cross accused of thievery.
So I mean, we're not talking about Mother Teresa here. We're talking about someone who probably lived a wicked life. But at the very end, he reaches out to Jesus, and what's he hear? "Today you will be with me in paradise". Well, again, imagine someone who's been Catholic all their life, they've gone through all kinds of struggles and temptations, but they've hung in there and they've done the Lord's work and they've tried to be good and just and loving and they struggled and struggled and they've made it through, and they get the same reward as that guy, as Dismas? In fact, St.Dismas? It just doesn't seem fair. It doesn't seem just.
Now at this point, this is where the scalpel is cutting, this is where the light is shining. This resistance needs to be looked at. And let me do so now under two different rubrics. St.Catherine of Siena said this: "Because Jesus said that he himself is the way, then the way to heaven is itself heaven". Let me say that again. Jesus said, "I am the truth and the life," but he also said, "I am the way". And that means the way to heaven is itself heaven. See, here's a false way to think about things spiritually. Heaven, it's this great candy land, it's this great reward, it's this great prize that I get after what? After this terrible tough slog through life. I mean, God knows why, but I'm asked to do all these really challenging, difficult things, to pray, to sacrifice, to love, yes, even my enemies.
And I've tried and it's just a tough slog and there's no letting up. It's supposed to go on your whole life long. So I guess after I've paid that terrible price, then I deserve this reward at the end. I deserve the prize of heaven. And someone, therefore, who hasn't done the work, he hasn't gone through the long slog, he's lived this self-indulgent life and maybe at the very end he does the right thing, he gets the same reward I get? Come on. But remember Catherine of Siena. "The way to heaven is heaven".
Let me put it this way. Do you really think that Mother Teresa of Kolkata now in heaven, confronted there with someone in need, offered there the opportunity to love, would say, "No, I'm done with that. I did that all my life long on earth. I put up with all these people all my life long, and now I deserve a little R&R. I deserve my nice reward here in heaven". No! The point is, the way to heaven is heaven. Meaning the love that she was demonstrating all her life long is precisely what was preparing her for the fullness of life in heaven. "I worked in the hot sun all day". Rather, I was given the enormous privilege of participating in the divine life all my life long. And maybe Dismas the good thief or that mob hitman, they didn't have that grace. They didn't have that opportunity.
This is not some drudgery that we're forced to go through in order to get some reward. But rather, we must see the path of love as itself already an anticipation of heaven. Do you see how the resentment we feel is a sign that we haven't yet got this right, that we haven't thought this through? If you're wearing your religious obligation like a terrible albatross around your neck, then you haven't gotten it yet. Think about this. Let me turn that Mother Teresa image around. Suppose somebody who's a great sinner is suddenly sent to Mother Teresa's motherhouse in Kolkata and told, "I want you to live the life of the sisters for the next year".
And he's completely unused to it. He's been a self-indulgent person, never engaged in the works of love, and now here he is in the worst slum in the world, caring for the poorest of the poor. He'd say, "I've just landed in hell". But now imagine, in time, as he gives himself to that life, as he surrenders to it, and he realizes, "This is the life of love that I've been called to". Without changing his address, he'd go from hell to heaven. See, when you're saying, "I've labored in the hot sun all day," well then you're still in the hell of your own self-regard. So let the uneasiness you feel upon hearing this work its way in your soul.
And now here's the second observation I want to make. If heaven is the life of love, and that's how all the great spiritual masters would say it. "There are three things that last, faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these is love". That's because in heaven, faith will fade away. I mean, I'll see God face to face. I don't need faith. Hope will fade away because I've realized my goal. But love remains because love is what heaven is. Heaven is the place of perfect love. Love is willing the good of the other. Okay. Go back to this parable. "You mean that guy who worked for one hour is getting the same reward I'm getting? It's ridiculous. I worked all day in the hot sun. I should get eight times what he got".
What's on display in that attitude? An extraordinary lack of love. To love is to will the good of the other. Notice please, you find this in the letter of James, our great tradition has nothing at all against justice, but mercy or love trumps justice. It goes beyond justice. If we're caught in a pure-justice frame of mind, then we haven't moved to the level of true love, willing the good of the other. Now move into that space. So you've labored all day. "Yeah, I've been given the opportunity to love all my life long". But someone who hadn't been given that opportunity, someone who at the very end, the mob hitman, he gets in?
Well, if your heart is filled with willing the good of the other, what's your attitude? Great. Terrific. I'm delighted. "Hey, wait a minute. It's not fair". I'm beyond this preoccupation with fair and unfair. All I want is what's good for the other. And this is. Look, he gets into heaven, he gets to share the life of God. Beautiful. Beautiful. I rejoice in that. And what love has done is it's burned away any preoccupation with who deserves it more and who's worked harder. That's burned away.
See, let this parable, everybody, shine its light upon the darkness in us, which just means an absence of love. Let our very resistance to it be a spiritual lesson. I've been in spiritual direction since I was a kid in the seminary. A bad spiritual director just says yes to you all the time, says, "You're doing great. Nothing's wrong with you. Everything's fine". A good spiritual director shines light in dark places, turns things over to reveal truth that maybe we don't want revealed. This parable functions as a good spiritual director. If it bothers you, good. It's meant to shine light on some lack of love. And God bless you.