Wednesday of 9th
Week of the Year
Retreat at St.
Joseph’s Villa, Flourtown, PA
June 5, 2013
AFTERLIFE FOR US
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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We believe in the resurrection of the dead
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Heaven, says Jesus < anything can imagine or
experience here
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Even < wonderful “marrying or being given in marriage
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Happily married people should not think they
will be disappointed in heaven
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What they will have is beyond the joy in love
they now have
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Those who have lived a consecrated or committed life
will experience the heavenly existence, which our consecrated state foreshadows
THIS LIFE FOR TOBIT
& SARA +++++++++++++++++++++
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For Tobit and Sara, the afterlife was lived in a
shady place called Sheol
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Thus answer to prayer and rewards of a good life
have to come on this side of the grace
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G sends Raphael, as answer to desperate prayers
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He’ll heal Tobit’s blindness & take away curse
from Sarah, the toxic bride
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They will not have to go to Sheol just yet
AFTERLIFE FOR
BONIFACE ++++++++++++++++++++++
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We know that not every sad story has a happy
ending in this life as for Tobit & Sara
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For many of us, God waits until we get to heaven
to make things come out even
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That’s what it was for St. Boniface in 800
century; unified Europe as Apostle to the Germans
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Lived good, but difficult 80+ yrs &
was murdered
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Left abbeys, dioceses, converts & reformed
clergy
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But reward did not come on this side of the
grave
APPLICATION +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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There’s a message here for married couples
struggling to stay together, clergy and religious wrestling with the keeping of
their vows, believers trying to hang on to faith
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What we learn from Tobit & Sarah = we should
keep praying, no matter how difficult things get
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And from Boniface, the completion may come on
other side of grave
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What gives us hope: whatever afflictions we may
suffer cannot compare to the glory prepared for us
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