Today at Holy Mass we hear in the Gospel of St Mark a conversation about what heaven will be like…..Some of the Sadducees were questioning Jesus…Keep in mind, the Sadducees were learned men and they were asking Jesus his thoughts about heaven….After the conversation was complete, Jesus said these words to them about their ideas about what eternal life will be all about….”You are greatly misled”…….So here is the question to ponder - Are we too “greatly mislead” about heaven today?…….Jesus tells us very clearly that He is the Way, which implies that in order to get to heaven, we must follow him - Why is that? - Because Jesus knows the “WAY”…This means our lives must be transformed by divine grace - And this is a process!….In heaven, for those who enter, the elect will ALL be perfected - First in this life by living sacrificially for others in love - And what remains in us that is impure, will then be perfected in Purgatory - This is a perennial teaching of the Catholic Church!….Before we stand before the "beatific vision”, we must be made perfect…Do we consider this reality? - This is an unchangeable teaching of the Catholic Church….But is it still preached? - Is it still taught?…..”American Christianity” has influenced the Catholic mind…..Today it is “believed” that “everyone” goes to heaven - And they go to heaven on “their terms”…..Nothing could be further from the Truth……What Jesus today said to the Sadducees applies to us equally today…..”You are greatly misled”…..In heaven, once the elect are ALL purified, EVERYONE will be of one mind and one heart - There will be perfect unity! - When you look at the world today - This is a hard concept to grasp - Because only God can make this happen…As we pray in the Lord’s Prayer - The only prayer given to us from Jesus….He teaches us - ”Thy will be done - On earth as it is in heaven”….As Baptized Catholics, maybe its time to start the purification process now - Don”t you think?….If we are to be of “one mind and one heart” in heaven - Its best we make that happen now - RIGHT?!? - I want my time in Purgatory to be as short as possible!
“I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord; whoever believes in me will never die”
A few years ago, one of my childhood friend’s father died and I attended the funeral Mass…At the Mass, my friend spoke and said his father, who was a Baptized Catholic - “Lived his life on his terms”……As I heard this I thought to myself - You completely do not get it!…To borrow the words of Jesus today in the Gospel…..”You are greatly misled”…..In order to arrive safely in heaven, we do not live our life on “our terms” but instead are called to live our life on “God’s terms” - Remember the words in the Lord’s Prayer? - “Thy will be done”……To live our life on God’s terms means to live the eternal Truths taught by the one Church that Jesus founded - The Catholic Church…Now how can we do that? - It seems almost impossible - Right?…..Well, to live as a Catholic relying on our own strength and natural born gifts is impossible! - The only way to live as a Catholic is to live Sacramentally, to develop a prayer life, to fast weekly etc….If we “think” we can self-manufacture a sanctified life without God’s grace - We are simply delusional! - There will be no transformation of the self!….But when we live as a practicing Catholic, day in and day out, we are slowly transformed - We become sanctified over time - In essence, we “prepare” our self to stand before the "beatific vision”…….If this is not your number one priority in life - As we heard in the Gospel today at Mass - ”You are greatly misled”….My childhood friend sadly “does not get it”…Life is not about living on “our terms” - Its about living on God’s terms….So don’t be misled!
“On this account I am suffering these things; but I am not ashamed, for I know him in whom I have believed and am confident that he is able to guard what has been entrusted to me until that day”
Today in St Mark’s Gospel at Mass a great debate takes place between Jesus and the religious scholars of his day about life after death….Such debates rage to this very day….Instead of “arguing” about something that frankly we have no idea about, maybe its a better idea to read what the Catholic Church tells us about how we are to arrive in heaven and what heaven will be all about - Why take this approach? - Because its all written down very clearly!…..The Church tells us how we are to get to heaven…And the Church tells us what heaven will be like….And here is the most important “take away” here….We DO NOT get to heaven on “Our Terms” - “Get that through your think head” as my mother would tell me growing up…..St Paul has diagnosed the problem best in this “great debate” about heaven - Here is the fundamental problem as per St Paul - “We hear what our itchy ears want to hear”….Maybe its time to stop “hearing” what we want to hear and start objectively reading what is presented very clearly to us by the Catholic Church……Its all about “THY” will be done - Not - “MY” will be done….JMJ
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