The human mind cannot grasp the concept of eternity. Perhaps we can understand what it means, that is, existing beyond this human life, or perhaps we can truly ponder it, and wonder at the mystery of it. But for our feeble human intellect, that is exactly what it is: mysterious. Like many of the great things in the church that we can't totally grasp, we will call it a mystery.
What we do know about eternity is that our souls are subject to it. Either an eternity full of joy, or one devoid of it. It really is that black and white. There isn't any gray (unless you count purgatory, but that is simply a stepping stone to heaven, no turning around after that). When we understand the stark contrast between these two options, we must realize that how we live our life is how we decide upon which eternity we choose.
I won't waste my time telling you in detail how eternity with God is the better choice. For the purpose of not droning on, I will assume we all believe that heaven is clearly a better choice than hell. Given that assumption, we would prefer to live our lives in a way that chooses heaven. How do we do this? Well, we have a great handbook on how to live called the Bible, and we have the Church that was established by Jesus Himself, which has a teaching authority to help us with lots of pesky details.
As a college student, and a student leader with the Catholic Campus Ministry, one of the more challenging situations I am faced with is awkwardness. When I call up a friend to invite them to join me at daily mass, or attend your bible study, I have to brace for impact. The impact of the impending awkwardness that is. One of my favorite responses is the long drawn-out ummmmmmmmm which is used to buy time to think of a slightly less-lame excuse than having school work. One of the most bold rejections I have received after asking someone to come to Sunday mass with me was "Catholics are cannibals, no thanks". The most frustrating ones are the people that don't return calls, texts, and even go out of their way to avoid you. All that does is force me to be more awkward by continuing to try and contact the evader.
But why go through this seeming torture of being rejected over and over? Of facing the awkward situation of being the weird church-girl? Of talking to the kid in the corner after mass whose facial expression gives the impression that he has never been in a public venue before and he hasn't showered recently?
Because it's worth it.
In my position as a joe-college kid (jane-college kid?), I have asked myself why I allow myself to be subjected to such incredible discomfort and akwardness. I could just sit back and act like what the movies have told me college kids are like, and avoid a lot of strange looks. But ultimately, the answer to my own question is the phrase that titles this blog post entry: eternity is worth the awkwardness. It's completely worth it.
If Jesus could hang out with the most hated people in society, I can make it worth my time to talk to the socially awkward kid, or risk my cool-points by inviting a group of random friends to mass.
Jesus leads by example, and if the example he gave for us to get to heaven was to love the ones who need love, awkwardness is a small price to pay for that.
***And in case you were wondering what awkward looks like, here are a few examples:
