A friend of mine has a funny little saying that he tells his friends whenever they are being led into temptation or considering doing something morally sketchy: Its all fun and games until someone goes to Hell!
In the old days Christians used to put a lot more emphasis on the reality of hell.
That hell exists and is the punishment for those who reject God’s goodness, love, and mercy is a firm fact of our faith. Jesus tells us on many occasions, and suggests in the Gospel today that there is something other than the Kingdom of Heaven, that people do end up there, and that it is not a nice place.
I think there are two reasons why people don’t talk about hell that often:
The first is a bad reason—simply put some people don’t believe in Hell. They can’t believe that a loving God would eternally damn His children to a fiery place of tornment—not realizing that the reality of Hell is an intergral proof of God’s goodness. God doesn’t force us to love Him, He loves us enough to let us choose even not to love God, i.e. Hell. The problem with this is you can’t be a Christian and not believe in Hell; and just because you don’t know or think a place exists doesn’t mean you can’t go there.
I think the second reason why people talk less about hell is a better one! The second reason is what Jesus talks about today, in Scriptures Jesus tells us the God sees the heart of Man and that, he judges us not on what we accomplish but on our intentions. God wants us to love Him, and Trust Him, and follow His law, His plan, because we love and trust Him not because we are afraid of the fires of Hell
Some people, myself included think, it’s better to focus on heaven and getting there! It’s like walking a tight rope or climbing a mountain, what do people always say when you are up high?
DON’T LOOK DOWN! Maybe just knowing it’s there is enough without concentrating on it.
So what do we have to do to get to heaven? Well it’s not easy, but it’s also not tremendously hard, either!
In the Gospel today Jesus tells us: I tell you unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees and scribes you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
What was wrong with the Pharisees and Scribes?? They were good people. You might ask, well what’s wrong with being a good person? Nothing, except we can’t settle for the mediocrity of just not doing anything bad, God doesn’t want us JUST to avoid bad things, He wants us to choose to do good things, to love, not just the people who are easy to love but also strangers and even our enemies AND God wants us to choose to do good things not because mom or dad or Mr. Hudson or Fr. Ron or anyone else tells us to or will praise us for doing these things. God wants us to try to do good and avoid evil because we love God.
Everything comes from God is a gift from God, given to Man, isn’t this enough to make us love our God?
Heaven is an eternity with God and so to get to heaven we need to want to be there we need to love God.
Who wants to got to heaven? What do you think Heaven will be like?
To tell you the truth, I am not sure what heaven will be like, St. Paul tells us eye has not seen nor has the ear heard, nor has it even entered the mind of man, what God has prepared for those who love Him, and so while I have some thoughts about heaven I know that it will be so much more awesome than anything I can imagine!
And because I know and love God and I trust Him I am willing to believe on blind faith that whatever He has prepared for humanity in Heaven is worth waiting for! Worth working for, living for and even dying for!
So if we trust and love God and want to get into heaven what do we need to do to get in? We need to try to be perfect. Did you all hear that, I didn’t say we need TO BE perfect but that we need to TRY. God judges your heart, he knows if you love Him and are trying to know and serve Him. Even if you fail a 1000 times, the difference between the sinner and the saint is that the saint picks himself up, goes to God in confession, and tries to do better again. The saint does not settle for being a “good person,” in fact the saint doesn’t care at all whether people say they are good, bad, or crazy, The saint wants only to give everything to God in love.
I’ve gotten to know many of you this past year, and I know that so many of you, especially you eight graders have really great hearts, don’t settle for being good people don’t buy into the lie that the way to be happy is by being successful, or wealthy, or having lots of friends or a beautiful wife, by being ordinary.
Be extraordinary, live extraordinary lives filled with the joy and peace that can only come from loving the Lord God. God created each of us for heaven, but also to fulfill a special mission on earth!
Our mission on earth is our path to heaven. Listen to God’s plan for you and don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid of anything, for Jesus is with you leading you, if only you will turn to Him, and trust in Him.
No comments:
Post a Comment