Colleen McLean is a life long Roman Catholic with a few pagan adventures along the way. She has been active in lay ministry in two states and four dioceses.
One of the things about having an academic biblical studies background is that you can easily forget that not everyone else has gone through the JEPD/Wellhausen debrief and that the idea of historical critical interpretation can be shocking at first.
Catholics like organizational labels. We like to sort and classify. We insist on believing in the power of the Holy Spirit to grace each person differently in order to bring about wholeness of wisdom and compassion in our communities.
I think it's metaphorical for the end of our human life individually — we come into being with God — but not a Scriptural literalist with the ideas of Armageddon and the end of the world period.
We each have a cross or crosses to bear. We can see obvious pain around us as well, and we usually do what we can to help. But do we understand how we also contribute to structures of oppression in our society? In our church?