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“Know
that the kingdom of God is near.”
How near … this kingdom? As near as the Body of Christ? Do I realize
the Jesus I receive at Mass is the very same Jesus who will end earthly time
at His Second Coming? In receiving the love of Jesus on Sunday, do I pass on
that love to His children, my brothers and sisters in Christ?
How near … this kingdom? As near as each of us? Are we not children
of God and temples of the Holy Spirit? If we are to be heirs to the kingdom,
do we treat each other with the respect due an heir to Heaven? Do we ever
see our brothers and sisters as eternal soul mates?
How near … this kingdom? As near as my deathday? On the day I die
will I cross over to our loving God of the Trinity? Or will I descend to the
Hell of despair that comes from the realization that God’s love, the reason
for which I was created, will never be my love?
Time. The parable whispers of time. Half of us will live to reach the
age of seventy. Envision seventy grains of sand in your hand, each grain
representing a year. The fate of the beach you stand on with its trillions
of grains of sand depends on the seventy you hold in your hand. A mere
seventy years decides an eternity of millenniums upon millenniums.
What are my real time-priorities? How much of my day do I give to God? How
much of my day do I give to helping others? Do I ever consider “helping
others” as praying for, and reaching out to, the two out of three Catholics
who no longer receive the sacraments? Having been given, and then rejecting,
the gift of the Catholic faith, how will God judge them?
Come, Holy Spirit, come. Help me be Christ-centered, not self-centered. Help
me be others-centered, not self-centered. Time. How do I use God’s gift of
time?
"If
people would do for God what they do for the world,
what a great number of Christians would go to Heaven!" ~St. John Vianney
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