What might it be like when we step into eternity?

What might it be like when we step into eternity?

It could be what a dream might hand us, especially if the results promise everything we’ve always desired for spiritual goodness.   Let’s take a look at such a dream I had last night.  It isn’t that I took a walk into graciousness that could become a reality without some attention to what my life has handed me in the past.  But when people who’ve been close to me or have played a role in my own ministry, these have been inputs into my thinking or in this case dreaming.  

I have had numerous dreams regarding Church affiliations that always left me feeling good since anything that touches my heart when doing spiritual actions with or without priests or other deacons.  Upon waking I have felt elated that my mind is on Christ and all that I have gleaned from his mission to call me into ministry. 

This dream found me and my wife in a church where there were many priests and Bishop David Bonner of Youngstown, OH.  All were fully vested and preparing for Mass but not placed in any specific order and were looking at me with praise and love.  It seems that as soon as the bishop was ready we would begin the procession to receive Holy Communion.  Everything was going well until my wife and I reached the point of the Eucharist when we realized that all the hosts were gone.  It appeared that there was a point where someone was preparing to bring two hosts for us but something was missing.  It looked as though it was Christ who was holding up the reception for us until the last mission we assumed must happen before he allowed us to complete our reception of the Eucharist.

What was missing I pondered as the bishop and the other priests looked as well to the empty ciborium.  Then it hit me like a question to anyone who is still seeking the answers to many mysteries for our mission that the Holy Spirit has placed before us.  Our work is never finished until we are called from this life into eternity.

Could I have figured out what the unfinished aspect of my ministry was about?  Of course not since all through my recent years as a deacon without concern for what the Holy Spirit has waiting for me.  My understanding is that it can be a new task that I willingly accept at each new venture.  So now I realized the empty ciborium meant there is at least one more mission that is waiting before the final reception of the Holy Eucharist.  Once that is completed then perhaps my ministry is done.

Ralph B. Hathaway