DAILY HOMILIES #heaven

We can achieve heaven on earth when we go out of our way to bring smiles to everyone around us. We can make God’s kingdom happen when we show care and concern for the welfare of everyone we meet. Someone once said the only difference between heaven and hell is the absence of love. When we hate one another, are self-centred, or desire the death and destruction of one another, we are living in hell.

Like the steward who had to let go of what would have come to him as profit, Jesus is telling us today to make sacrifices, to let go of the vain things and fleeting pleasures of life for the greater good of making heaven. Our attachment to wealth and material possessions often obstacles the practice of our Christian virtues.

Today’s celebration serves one purpose: to make us think of heaven and increase our longing for heaven. Don’t just be a Christian; strive to be an exceptional Christian; live according to the beatitudes, and follow what today’s Psalm says—generations after you will continue to celebrate you. Your name will be heard on the lips of many long after you have gone. This is what it means to live forever.

The price of heaven is righteousness. It is not tithes, offerings or donations. It is not according to the number of times you attend church or which church you attend. Jesus said: “Many will come from east and west, and north and south, and sit at the table in the kingdom of God.” (Luke 13:29). Even though the door is narrow, it will accept many people. Some of those you have written off now (because they don’t attend your church or do not pretend like you) will enter heaven. Jesus said: “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.” (Matthew 21:31)

The Price of heaven is simple: Keep God’s commandments. This was Jesus’ instruction to the rich man Last Sunday. The second step is detachment. The entrance into heaven is like the “Eye of a Needle.” We cannot pass through this gate with our luggage. Today, Jesus mentions a third step – the sacrifice of one’s very life for the good of others. Jesus asked James and John, “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or to be baptised with the baptism with which I am baptised?” (Mark 10:38).

Only a true friend will tell you the truth about yourself. Many preachers (pastors, priests, church leaders, etc.) wallow in darkness because they have surrounded themselves with praise singers. We, men of God, believe we are perfect because everyone respects us, and since no one is bold enough to correct us, we no longer see anything wrong with our sinful behaviours.

Finally the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death

Jesus is inviting us to invest in eternity and live in such a manner as to be worthy of heaven after our death. If you do not attain heaven, everything else is useless. Regardless of one’s length of days or riches attained, without heaven, one has only lived a wasted life. Go to the graveyard; you will observe that you cannot tell the difference between those who lived in affluence and those who barely survived. What truly matters is where we spend eternity; it is neither how much we gather nor how much we leave for our children. To die in a state of disconnect with God is the worst kind of death.

Jesus is not trying to monetise God’s kingdom (after all, no money is enough to buy heaven). Rather, in these parables, Jesus is restating the first commandment: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5, cf. Mark 12:29-30, Matthew 22:37 & Luke 10:27). To love God with all of one’s heart, mind, soul and strength is to sell off anything capable of occupying your heart, mind or soul. In other words, do not let your possessions or earthly pursuits take the place of God in your life.

Why tell a lie to make money? Why do you deceive your customers in your business place? Don’t you trust that God can provide for you? “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Consider the lilies of the field and how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon was not arrayed like one of these in all his glory. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you?

The fact that people place value on something does not make it a treasure. It is not a treasure if it can decay (lose value or depreciate) or be stolen from you. It is not a treasure if it will not follow you to the grave (if it cannot be buried with you). Jesus warns: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal.” (Matthew 6:19).

Do not envy anyone because of the position they occupy because, in the end, all flesh is grass. The king and the servant have the same fate. On the other hand, do not base your worth on your position; you don’t have to lord it over anybody to feel respected.