God is totally committed, pouring Himself into us all, offering us His own life, everything that makes Him who He is, at every Mass, everywhere, every day, pleading and hoping that we will all choose and receive Him.

There is, however, one thing in this life that certainly is in heaven, and that we can experience right now. That is love. Love, therefore, wherever it arises, however we experience it, is the clearest sign of what heaven is like.

It wasn’t just the three wise men from the east (Matthew 2:1-12) who were looking for Jesus, dying to learn more about Him. In age after age there have been people who felt the cold death swirling about their feet and wondered if maybe the stories they had heard of a Divine Deliverer from the children of Abraham might just be true.

God did not need to create the universe. God isn’t any greater because we exist, or because the universe exists. He created the universe simply as a vessel to pour His love into, and to be such a universe all its people have to be free. A universe made as a vessel for divine love cannot have people unable to say no.

Jesus points us to the oldest prayer in Judaism, which is still a central feature of Jewish prayer: the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4-9). The part that comes after “You shall love the Lord, your God…” describes five steps that form disciples in the love of God and the love of neighbor.

Not all divisions are bad because not all divisions are born of jealousy.