But as we all know, all good things take time…And we are all a “work in progress”…..So lets put our “shoulder to the plow” and get it done!

Today at Holy Mass we hear in the first readings from St John…He says something that is rather interesting…..”Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure”….This statement implies that there is a process that needs to be embraced…That we do not become the people we were born to be without this process…The process is purification….When you listen to American Christians, even many baptized Catholics…There is a deep misunderstanding of how we get to heaven and what the beatific vision actually is…..Our number one goal in life should be to get to heaven…And as a very good priest once told me….”Joe, you do not just float into heaven”…..We either purify ourselves here on earth by conforming our will to the will of God or if we die in the state of grace and if we did not “work out” our many attachments to sin, then we are purified in Purgatory…This is and has been a perennial Catholic teaching (backed up by Sacred Scripture for all you Protestants out there) - So don’t shoot the messenger!…….Either way, nothing that is impure stands before God…..Protestants believe, that no matter what, once you confess, “Jesus is my Lord and Savior” - Your in the “Big House” - Nothing else matters….That understanding of salvation is not even biblical and that is their contention - That “everything must be in the Bible” (ie sola scriptura)…Then you have Catholics, who never stepped foot into Mass, lived their life completely on their own terms…And then when they die, everyone immediately says…”So and So is in heaven”…..Once again…St John tells us at Mass today something completely different…….”Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure”……If we have the hope that we will go to heaven…We therefore must strive to make ourselves pure…..How do we do that?…Its a process

“See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God……..Yet so we are”

As many of us know, life has many chapters…….As people grow older, people change…Life has a way of humbling people…I have seen this first hand…..Guys I knew in my youth have changed as they have grown older, their “edges” got less “sharp”…..And that is a good thing…Jesus established a Church…He did not write a book…The Bible was put together by a Catholic (for all those who are Protestant reading this) 400 years after Jesus was crucified…..And in the Church Jesus established, he gave us all the “tools” we need to purify ourselves….Prayer, the Mass, the Blessed Sacrament, the Sacrament of Reconciliation to name a few…..There was a time that American Catholics would go to Confession with a Priest often….No more sadly…A HUGE error…Why?…Well, the obvious reason is we ALL are sinners and are in desperate need of God’s mercy…But what is often not considered is….If we want to grow in virtue and overcome the sins we continuously commit due to our human weakness, we need God’s grace…And every time you confess your sins, God gives you grace to overcome that sin…And in time you will get “better and better” and that sin will disappear or be committed with less frequency….This is the means of purification St John is referring to in the first reading today at Mass………Fasting also aides us in this process, by teaching us self discipline, which is another means of purifying ourselves…..Becoming the people we were called to be does not happen overnight…Its a process……..In my early twenties I committed myself to become a practicing Catholic….And I knew if I wanted to be a practicing Catholic and was not married, I had to live a chaste life until I got married………In order to “arrive” at that "place", required God’s grace……One year during Lent, I embarked on the process vigorously to live a chaste life and during that period I went on a retreat…..During the retreat I went to confession and the priest addressed my sins of impurity, which I confessed...... The priest during that confession told me I needed to “put away childish things” ….St Paul used those same words in Scripture…Anyway, on that retreat, that same priest who I went to confession with was distributing Holy Communion and I was on his line to receive…Once I stood in front of him, he recognized me and when he put the Consecrated Host into my hand, he pressed his finger into my palm, as a reminder of what we talked about during my confession…..As a result of that retreat, my confession and conversation with that priest - Along with a rigorous lenten fast…I was given the grace of chastity…And lived a chaste life from my late twenties until my wedding day to my wife at the age of 43……That is no lie!…People reading this may not believe me…But I am telling you the truth!…Grace is real and purifying ourselves is a process…It requires our will to bend utilizing all the “tools” given to us by the one Church Jesus founded…Look - At the end of the day, we are ALL sinners…And overcoming those sins should be a priority……..Why? - Because as St John said today at Mass……”Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure”……And here is some good news…The closer we get to God, by means of our purification, the more good we can do here on earth…..Why?…Because only saints change the world…And a holy life is within reach of every human person - That means YOU!…However, sanctification is a process…So lets put our “shoulder to the plow” and get it done!

“Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed”

Far too many people do not prioritize the process of striving to live a holy life…Why?….That is for each of us to address personally…But if I was to guess…I would say, we take for granted God’s mercy…If we want to get into the “Big House Upstairs” - And I know we ALL do, we need to make ourselves the people God called us to be - “A chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may announce the praises” of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light”.……When you go on an interview for a job, you wear your “best suit”…Well, when we die, we go on the biggest interview of our life…We stand before God…And when we do, we want to be ready….Look, God loves us and God is full of mercy - All we have to do is our best and if we commit to doing our best with the help of God’s grace, utilizing the “tools” given to us through the one Church Jesus founded…We will get much farther then we ever thought possible!…Then when we stand before God and have our “exit interview” we will hear these words…..”Well done, my good and faithful servant. Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great responsibilities. Come, share your master’s joy.”…..But as we all know, all good things take time…And we are all a “work in progress”…..So lets put our “shoulder to the plow” and get it done!