Warfare the Condition of Victory.
I. It will be well if we take to ourselves, and learn that great truth which the Apostles shrank from at first, but at length rejoiced in. Christ suffered and entered into joy, So did they, in their measure, after Him. And, in our measure, so do we. It is written that "through much tribulation we must enter into the kingdom of God." At some time or other of the life of everyone there is pain, and sorrow, and trouble. So it is, and the sooner we can look upon it as a law of our Christian condition the better. One generation comes and then another. They issue forth, and succeed like leaves in spring; in all this law is observable. They are tried, and then they triumph; they are humbled, and then are exalted; they overcome the. world, and then they sit down on Christ's throne. I suppose it is a long time before any one of us recognises and understands that his own state on earth is, in one shape or other, a state of trial and sorrow; and that, if he has intervals of external peace, this is all gain, and more than he has a right to expect. Let us try to accustom ourselves to this view of the subject. The Church, all elect souls, each in its turn, is called to this necessary work. Once it was the turn of others, and now it is our turn. It is as though all of us were allowed to stand around His throne at once, and He called on first this man, and then that, to take up the chant by himself, each in his turn having to repeat the melody which his brethren have before gone through; or as if it were some trial of strength or of agility, and while the ring of bystanders beheld and applauded we, in succession, one by one, were actors in the pageant. Such is our state angels are looking on, Christ has gone before Christ has given us an example that we may follow His steps. Whatever your trouble be, though you be lonely, O Children of a Heavenly Father, be not afraid! quit you like men in your day, and when it is over, Christ will receive you to Himself, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh, from you.
II. Christ is already in that place of peace, which is all in all. He is on the right hand of God. He is hidden in the brightness of the radiance which issues from the everlasting throne. He is in the very abyss of peace, where there is no voice of tumult or distress, but a deep stillness stillness, that greatest and most awful of all goods which we can fancy; that most perfect of joys, the utter, profound, ineffable tranquillity of the Divine Essence. He has entered into His rest. That is our home;here we are but on pilgrimage, and Christ calls us to His many mansions which He has prepared.
J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons,vol. vi., p. 221.
References: Luke 24:52; Luke 24:53. Homiletic Quarterly,vol. iii., p. 127. Luke 24:53. F. Kelly, Church of England Pulpit,vol. xiii., p. 244.