”You can’t have your cake and eat it too”…..We cannot have it both ways….So place your bet!

Today at Holy Mass we hear in the Gospel from St Luke about what I call the “blue print” to get to heaven…The Beatitudes…When you read the Beatitudes you hardly get a “warm and fuzzy” feeling…At least I do not…They tell it like it is…They tells us that there is a great disparity between heaven and earth…Between the ways of God and the ways of man…And frankly they also tell us that if we are to be on the side of God…Things “down here” are not going to be too easy….”Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man”……American Christians like to “sugar coat” discipleship…That includes many Catholics…The long and short of it is this…The cross is real!…..And Jesus did not have an easy time of it…Let me let you in on a little secret…If we truly follow Jesus….We will not have an easy time of it either…..But wait there is more…We know the end of the story…..”Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven.”

We all like to “have our cake and eat it too”…..It does not work that way!

The late and great CS Lewis put it best……..”We must not invest in the transient things of this world, the very worst of investments, but in the everlasting things of heaven. If we fight the long defeat with the things of heaven in mind, we will attain the final victory. It is this final victory that represents, for each of us, the final defeat of the prince of this world”……..In the gospel today, Jesus in the Beatitudes is once again not “selling anything” to us…He tells us flat out that if we follow him…We will have troubles…But he also tells us flat out….”Take heart, for I have conquered the world”…….If we as Catholics are looking for a “bed of roses” here on earth, we are deluding ourself…The world was not interested in the message of Christ when he walked the earth and the world sure as the day is long is not interested in the message of Christ now…Sure, the world likes the idea of what I call “Hippie Jesus”…But the minute Jesus starts to talk about “the cross”….Far too many run for the hills

“Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man”

I always find it interesting when I come across a person who has been given all the gifts the world has to offer: wealth, power, good looks, education, status…And when such a person in a sense......”Trade those gifts in” for the Kingdom of God.....When we read the lives of the saints…Many of them did just that…But what about in the here and now?…..What comes to mind is my dear friend Richard Williams who recently passed away…Rich was a Wharton graduate (University of Pennsylvania)…He was also a two time All-American Goalie…He had all the gifts the world had to offer, yet he gave his life to Christ radically…Rich became a teacher in a poor city and lived very modestly and humbly…At his funeral I over heard a man who knew Rich for many years…When it was told that Rich had an Ivy League degree and was an All-American athlete…This man said…”I never knew that”…Rich was a man of the Beatitudes…….He found the “pearl of great price” and “traded in” what he could have achieved in this world for the riches in heaven…..He understood that “the cross” is very real but so is heaven…..”Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven.”

Getting back to St Luke and his gospel from Mass today….Luke paints a clear picture for us and tells it like it is….We all need to make a choice and in a way…We all make a “bet”….We put “our money down” on the words of Christ…Or…We put “our money down” on the “ways of the world”…We can not have it both ways…….”I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly”…….Jesus is not “selling us” anything, however he gives us eternal life, if we choose it…If we are willing to pick up our cross and follow him…That road is not always easy…Don’t believe me?….Just read what Jesus says in the Beatitudes, which is the “blue print” to get to heaven…..”I have told you this so that you might have peace in me. In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world”…You either believe this or you don’t but if we choose to believe this….Then “Blessed are you”…But make no mistake about it…”You can’t have your cake and eat it too”…..We cannot have it both ways….So place your bet!