Dear Brothers and Sisters, No doubt you’ve heard about the recent passing of Steven Hawking. By all accounts, he was a brilliant physicist who had the ability to explain the theory of everything. For all his brilliance, however, Hawking believed that the universe is governed by the laws of science. Hawking was an atheist. In one interview he said that the simplest explanation for the origins of the universe is that there is no God, no one created the universe, there is no heaven and probably no afterlife either. By contrast, Pope Francis quotes Psalm 33 to explain that by the word of the Lord the heavens were made. Pope Francis says that the world came about as the result of a decision, a free choice, an order of love. God’s love is the fundamental moving force in all created things. Each living thing reveals some aspect of God who inter-penetrates all created things, for those who have faith. Steven Hawking was a brilliant man but he had no faith. Remember what Jesus said in Luke’s Gospel, “…although you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, you have revealed them to the child- like.” We don’t need to be brilliant physicists to know that Jesus Christ is really…truly present…body, blood, soul and divinity in the Eucharist, and that faith in Jesus Christ will accomplish your salvation. Now that Steven Hawking has met God…I wonder what he would say to us about heaven and the afterlife, and I wonder what he would say to us about how we’re living our lives. – Deacon Vic.,