WHY IS EVERYONE LAUGHING?

The title of my reflection for this feast of the Assumption is, “Why Is Everyone Laughing?”

Jack was still in a daze - standing there on the line – outside the gates of heaven. A lot of people had died that day. And it was a fairly long line – as everyone was heading towards the big main gate. And yes, he noticed, the gates were golden.

But he could see inside – through the fence. He could see these great, green fields – with high, high grass, waving in the bright sun. And he could see some people inside running and playing – and they all seemed so young – and everyone was laughing, laughing, laughing.

He felt old – but as he began to look at himself – he could see his body was young again. This was confusing - very confusing. He had just died at the age of 93 – and these last two years – were years of coughing too much, aching too much – feeling out of it too much.

He remembered he was scared to die – not knowing what was on the other side of life – whether there was really anyone or anything beyond death. Oh, he believed in God. He went to church much of his life. He tried to be a good guy; but there was always the wondering if there was anything beyond the grave.

Jack finally got to the main gate and walked in. Peter was there – greeting everyone personally – welcoming Jack – with this big smile on his big bearded face.

“Welcome into the Kingdom of Heaven.”

Jack was stunned.

“You made it!”

Jack said, “Okay” – but very hesitatingly.

“Go and enjoy yourself,” Peter said. “And by the way, there’s a whole group of people waiting over there for you – wondering when you were going to show up.”

Jack looked. There was his wife, his three sisters, two brothers, his daughter, his parents, grandparents, tons of friends – all young, brand new, laughing and laughing and waiting and waiting for him. It was a great moment of reunion. In fact, with each hug, he found himself saying, “This is heaven?"

And he began to laugh.

In fact, he stepped back and laughed and laughed and laughed. He said to himself, “If I knew it was going to be like this, I wouldn’t have worried about this down deep through the years.”

And everyone laughed with him – saying, “We know what you’re feeling. We know what you’re thinking. We went through what you’re going through right now.”

“Wow!”

And then his wife, his young wife, - and his sisters and his brothers, and their wives and his daughter, and his parents and their parents and their parents, all took him on a grand tour of heaven. No cars. No buses. Just walking and running, and laughing, in this vast paradise – with billions and billions and billions and billions of people from way back to just now – people of all races, languages and ways of life.

And then he met God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit – and what a welcome. He fell to his knees – but they lifted him up and embraced him laughing and what an embrace.

And weeks and weeks went by – but not weeks – because this was eternity – but it was some kind of time going by, but he didn’t know how to describe time that wasn’t time, and eternity with ever changing moments.

And each day Jack and those with him would meet new people – and the story telling was wonderful – and he met thousands and thousands of people – and every once and a while he would meet someone he had heard about or read about in his lifetime. Wow.

One day he met this beautiful young woman. She had this most amazing smile on her face. No wrinkles. Just a warm wonderful smile. And she was singing and laughing to herself. Jack had seen her sitting there, so he went over introduced himself to her.

She said her name was Mary.

"Where were you from Mary?”

“Nazareth.”

“Nazareth, Pennsylvania, near Bethlehem, Pennsylvania?”

"No,” she laughed. “Nazareth, Israel, a good distance from Bethlehem, Israel.”

“Oh,” Jack said. “Did you have any children?

“Yes, a son,” she said.

What was his name?”

“Jesus,” she answered.

Then came the moment of shock on Jack’s face.

“You’re the Mary! Wow!”

“I wasn’t a Catholic – so tell me why Catholics hold you so dearly?”

And she told him the story and he laughed and she laughed – and they laughed so loud – that people going by stopped and said, “Oh, once again, Mary’s telling him what Catholics knew about her and we didn’t know till we got up here.”

And everyone laughed.

And Mary said, "Would you like to take a walk? I'd like to introduce you to my cousin, Elizabeth. She has a son with the same first name as you."