Yesterday, one of our students stopped me in the corridor between classes and said, “Father, can I ask you a question?” I answered, “of course” and thought this is a school. This is a place where questions are always in order. And this was the question, “what is heaven like?” I didn’t have a lot of time to answer, but I needed a little time. So I said, “that’s a good question.” We who are supposed to answer questions usually say that since we want to encourage questions. This is a place of questions.

Truth be known, there are more questions than answers, but the student had just asked a very important question and I needed an answer. It was not a complete answer, but it was an honest one. I said I didn’t know.

I don’t know because I have never been there, but there is a lot written about it because it’s something everyone is curious about. Even young children and especially those of us who are older- or those whom Jack called in his blog, “geezers.”

So, I had some answer for the student by repeating what Pope St. John Paul said, namely that heaven is not a place. It is an existence, an encounter with God that is complete, total, and literally timeless.

So far so good, but this particular student is persistent and asked, what about the body?

On that I relied on Scripture and said that all the accounts about the only person who has been there and returned have one thing in common: Every resurrection account, every single instance, those who saw the Resurrected Jesus, whom they had known very well, had lived with him for years, no one recognized him at first. Neither Mary Magdalen, Peter, nor any of the disciples. So his body was real, but somehow different.

I did not have time to add that there is exception. One person recognized the resurrected Lord immediately and that was the person the gospel calls “The Beloved Disciple,” the “One whom Jesus loved.”

Love, then, is the means of encounter with those who have gone before us. And everyone knows what love is, even if it, like heaven, is difficult to define.

I remember seeing Jack on campus. I know he was on the swim team, but not much more. Everything I have read since he died, and from what many who did know him have told me, he was a remarkable young man.

I read his blog, as I mentioned, and was much moved by his courage, his humor, his forthrightness. But I wonder and I assume the question of what is heaven like must have been considered.

In life on earth, there are intimations, hints, and what one author calls “Rumors of angels.” A moment of laughter, an encounter of love, a beautiful day, a drive to Sun Valley in a convertible- these are all breakthroughs from heaven to encourage us to live in hope, to enjoy the moment. Such moments usually arrive spontaneously and surprisingly. But they are real.

Over the next three days, the Church remembers all the dead. It always has done that. And in less than two weeks, the world remembers all those who gave their lives in the service of their country. We may not “know” what heaven is like, but it is a deeply held belief, hope of the human spirit.

After communion, some who know Jack are going to share some of their memories of the man whom one could meet once and feel like you knew him forever. That word, “forever” is not in the past tense. It includes now and it includes, well, forever.

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