"Soon and Very Soon" is a popular, catchy little hymn by Andrae Crouch about the happiness of "going to heaven." A lot of "Gospel music" is devoted to that theme, such as "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," "In that Great Gettin' Up Morning," "Bringing in the Sheaves," "No Tears in Heaven," "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?," "In the Sweet By-and-By," "I Am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger," but less about how, if anything, to do that.

For senior Catholics like me, who first learned our religion from the Baltimore Cathechism, that is Question #4: "What must we do to gain the happiness of heaven?" The answer is: "To gain the happiness of heaven we must know, love, and serve God in this world." When asked, Jesus himself claimed that to attain eternal life, one had to love God and love one's neighbor (Matthew 19:16; Mark 10:17; Luke 10:25; Luke 18:18), a fairly standard Jewish belief of his time. As reported in the Gospel of John, he also said that one must be "born again," and this is a spiritual, rather than a physical, rebirth.

Many of the Jews of Jesus' time who believed in the afterlife leaned toward the position that only those of their faith and/or ancestry "would be saved," but Jesus did not claim that. St. Peter elucidated the idea that God is no respecter of persons, that in every nation anyone who fears God, and works righteousness, is acceptable to Him. Islam professes a similar belief.

The multiplicity of modern religions has spawned many different interpretations of this concept. My understanding of Hasidic Judaism suggests that it's beliefs about an afterlife closely resemble those of Roman Catholicism, except for the possibility of eternal damnation, in which Catholics believe and Hasidic Jews apparently don't. All religions that I know of generally prescribe some form of "righteous living" necessary or helpful to attain the "happiness of heaven," except possibly for our Baptist brethren. The Baptist Confessions of Faith, asserts that salvation does not depend upon anything one does or avoids. I discuss my related views here and here.

"Righteous living" is thus promised a reward of eternal happiness, the "carrot" of most religions, with hell being the "stick" with the possible exception of Baptists and maybe Hasidic Jews. Yet Baptists and Jews believe in righteous living too. Worshipping things, cursing and swearing, working seven days week after week without a break, dishonoring parents and authorities, murdering each other, messing with each others' spouses, taking each others' things, lying and cheating, and desiring things you can't have, all make people who do those things unhappy. They often end up chronically ill or in prison, or dead before their time! Virtue is its own reward, and all that! Being prosperous doesn't necessarily mean being wealthy, it means being happy as well! Knowing, loving and serving God is supposed to make us happy right here, with a promise of much better things to come!

The Bible contains many stories of wealthy people who were unhappy. The vineyard owner who worried about getting his grapes picked on time, the son who got his inheritance and squandered it, the servant who was forgiven a huge debt but wasn't satisfied are but three examples. The promise of eternal happiness is not only an assurance that troubles will all be over, it's a pledge that a good life will get even better. But the "good life" doesn't work if one "knows, loves and serves God" only sometimes or in some situations and not at or in others, or "pro" natural rights of one group and "against" those of another. It's a win/win situation only if it's a consistent "win."

So the idea of "soon and very soon" being a desirable way to end life may not be the best one. A good argument could be made that, since were are all here already, some of us with several decades left, it makes sense to make the best of things now, with a view to getting the ultimate reward in the indefinite future. Treating each other with kindness and respect, living rationally and trying to get the most out of life, all the time seems like a good idea, especially if we all prosper here in the process, no matter what happens afterward. It's just logical!

The Vulcan aliens in the "Star Trek" canon are very logical. It is the central focus of their philosophy. "Mr. Spock," the half human, half Vulcan science officer (in the picture) aboard the Original Season Starship "Enterprise," embodies this concept. The actor whose career is pretty much defined by this character, Leonard Nemoy, conceived a Vulcan Blessing of "live long and prosper" with an accompanying gesture from his childhood memories of the way Jewish priests hold their hands when giving the Priestly Blessing. Both of these seem to be pretty basic "good sayings" to or about anyone, which is what the Latin word "benedixio" for the English noun "blessing" means. The "Vulcan Blessing" has the additional benefit of being non-sectarian (unless one is a Vulcan, of course).

There are situations in which this can be important!

On April 27, 2022, a beloved Iranian refugee and member of our community in Gulfport, Mississippi, Dr. Mohammad Moeini, was one of four people brutally murdered by Jeremy Alexander Reynolds, a guest at a motel owned by Dr. Moeini. The funeral was attended by a standing room only crowd of mostly Muslim relatives and friends. I believe that Dr. Moeini and his immediate family were Catholics. The Catholic Diocese School System was known as a second home to his children. and his daughter Shayeen was the top honor student and valedictorian at St. Patrick High School. The service was conducted by a local Catholic pastor, who spoke passionately of "salvation through Jesus Christ" - to a room full of grieving Muslims! My personal feelings are that he could have instead "said good things" about Dr. Moeini's life, that he was a very good man who deserved to live longer than his 51 years, and that he had worked hard to share with his community the prosperity he had achieved in spite of almost insuperable setback and difficulties. These included having to leave behind in Iran all his medical education records and having to start over in a strange country as a businessman.

Something similar happened at the wedding of a friend of mine, one of Dr. Moeini's cousins, who had recently converted to Christianity prior to marrying a fellow Iranian expatriate. The wedding was a traditional Muslim ceremony, to which she had looked forward since childhood. It was supplemented by a Christian ceremony apparently demanded by her new pastor, a fellow in a casual, flowery short sleeved sport shirt who made a big speech about how wonderful it was that he had baptized her into the church. I remember wondering "if this moron knows he's preaching to a room full of Muslims," to whom apostasy from Islam is a mortal sin!

I think we Catholics, and some other Christians, tend to be unnecessarily parochial, to the extent of offending other Christians as well as people of other faiths. In our masses, for example, we offer sacrifice with "Leo our Pope and Lewis our Bishop, and all those who, holding to the truth, hand on the Catholic and apostolic faith...and all gathered here, whose faith and devotion are known to you..." I don't have a problem with that, but I think we should pray for people who seem to be especially in need of help. After all, the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.

Nevertheless, we occasionally include prayers for other famous Catholics such as we did for Teddy Kennedy, shortly after his death on August 25, 2009. I suggested to the congregation that we include prayers for the repose of the soul of relatively unknown Mary Jo Kopechne whom Teddy had left to die of asphyxiation in his overturned car after he ran it into a pond on July 18, 1969. At the age of 77, he had already "lived long," and his Congressional financial disclosure, submitted in 2007, put his personal wealth at $100 million, so he had certainly "prospered."

The pastor drew me aside after mass and made it clear that he "didn't like [my] political remarks." I'm still not clear what his reasoning was, or a why he thought they were "political."

Just before the communion service, we are asked to "offer each other a sign of peace." Most of the people in our parish shake or wave their hands. I raise mine in the Vulcan Blessing, drawing an occasional chuckle from the younger parishioners. Those who do not, for one reason or another, plan to receive communion are invited to come forward with the communicants and receive "a blessing." As far as I can tell, the blessing always invokes the Trinity. That might be objectionable to my Muslim and Jewish friends, to whom "the Father, Son and Holy Spirit" may smack of polytheism, another mortal sin in both Islam and Judaism. I think the Vulcan Blessing would be more appropriate, especially for children whose sole reason for not receiving communion is that they are too young. Great sinners especially need blessings and prayers, and they just might find "live long and prosper" to be more to their liking, and maybe an incentive to find out what Catholics are all about.

As far as needing prayers or blessings is concerned, our current President seems to be hell bent on destroying our Country and a large part of the rest of the world and society as well. It is not my place to judge whether he is a great sinner, or just misinformed, misguided, confused, incompetent, senile, or possibly crazy, but I think it is certainly appropriate to pray for him. In our prayer to St. Michael the Archangel at the end of mass, I pray that Michael will, "by the power of God, cast into hell Trump's tempters, and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world, seeking the ruin of souls." I think that's appropriate. We all have "tempters," after all!

Mr. Trump holds the record for the oldest President at inauguration. At an age at this writing of 79.5, he is older now than the mean age at death for all US Presidents who died of natural causes, which is 78.0. The mean age of American men at death is around 76.1, so Mr. Trump has certainly "lived long." Also, with an estimated net worth of over 2.5 times that of all the other Presidents combined, adjusted for inflation since their deaths, from his favorite pastime of making money, he has definitely "prospered" already. The Vulcan Blessing might be wasted on him.

Perhaps we we can pray that he will eventually receive the eternal reward of a just and merciful God for his service to and treatment of his fellow man...

And that it will be "soon and very soon!"

John Lindorfer