WHILE we need to be properly engaged with our daily routine of work,
usually the ordinary little duties attached to our profession and the
other conditions of our life, we should remember that we have to aim
also at the real big thing which is our holiness that requires going
beyond the prosaic of the here and now.
We need to make this reminder because many of us are falling into
complacency and confusion, lost in the flow of daily events and unable
to connect to the ultimate goal we all are meant to reach.
In fact, many now think we just have to live from moment to moment,
from day to day, denying any importance to any concern for the future
and much less to eternity. Eternal life holds no meaning to many of
us. There’s nothing after death. Everything is transitory. Nothing
remains forever.
The inquisitiveness of that rich young man who asked Christ, “What
good must I do to have eternal life?” is all but gone in the mind and
heart of modern man. We seem contented and thrilled only with what we
have at hand—the new technologies, fashions, etc.—that appear to
capture our dreams and fantasies.
This time-and-earth-bound mentality is actually dramatized abundantly
in the gospel. There’s that parable, for example, of a man who in
trying to insure his temporal security decided to build larger barns
to store his possessions, and said to himself: “Soul, you have much
goods laid up for many years. Take your rest, eat, drink and make
merry.” (Lk 12,19)
The lesson Christ wanted to impart from this parable is the following:
“Seek first the kingdom of God and his justice, and all these things
(the earthly, temporal and material things we need) shall be added
unto you.” (12,31)
Christ wants us to make “bags which do not grow old, a treasure in
heaven that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth
corrupts.” (12,33)
We have to get out of this time-and-earth-bound outlook, and enter
into an exciting adventure that God offers us in his providence, in
his abiding governance of his whole creation, in his continuing
intervention in our life. It’s an adventure that cruises through time
and space but also transcends them to bring us to eternal life and
joy.
We just cannot make our life the way we want it to be. We have to live
it with God. In fact, only with God would we be able to live our life
to the full. Without him, we would be out on a limb, prone to all
sorts of danger and harm, inside and outside us.
What this means is that we need to fall in love to be able to connect
the material with the spiritual, the temporal with the eternal, the
human with the divine. But we have to love with the love of God who is
the author, essence, means and end of love. We have to be forewarned
of the many fake forms of love we tend to get tricked into.
With this love of God, we can link the small ordinary events of our
life to the big and beyond of our earthly life. And this love of God
is none other than obeying God’s commandments. Christ himself said so:
“If you love me, keep my commandments.” (Jn 14,15)
This indication was precisely reinforced in that episode of the rich
young man. Christ told him that to enter into eternal life, he has to
follow the commandments. And when the young man said he was doing all
the commandments, then Christ told him to sell all he had and to come,
follow Christ.
We cannot exaggerate this need to follow Christ as closely as possible
even to the point of leaving behind everything that we have (relictis
omnibus). Following Christ would always involve a continuing process
of self-denial. It’s a denial that would leave us increasingly empty
of ourselves to fill ourselves more and more with Christ.
This is the love of God that would enable us to properly immerse
ourselves in our earthly condition and to transcend it as well to
bring us to our ultimate destination. This is the love that makes the
little things of our day big and acquire an eternal value.
God does not want us to get out of this world. He put us here, in the
first place. But he wants us to live our life here properly, that is,
with love that usually is manifested by offering everything to God and
serving others.
usually the ordinary little duties attached to our profession and the
other conditions of our life, we should remember that we have to aim
also at the real big thing which is our holiness that requires going
beyond the prosaic of the here and now.
We need to make this reminder because many of us are falling into
complacency and confusion, lost in the flow of daily events and unable
to connect to the ultimate goal we all are meant to reach.
In fact, many now think we just have to live from moment to moment,
from day to day, denying any importance to any concern for the future
and much less to eternity. Eternal life holds no meaning to many of
us. There’s nothing after death. Everything is transitory. Nothing
remains forever.
The inquisitiveness of that rich young man who asked Christ, “What
good must I do to have eternal life?” is all but gone in the mind and
heart of modern man. We seem contented and thrilled only with what we
have at hand—the new technologies, fashions, etc.—that appear to
capture our dreams and fantasies.
This time-and-earth-bound mentality is actually dramatized abundantly
in the gospel. There’s that parable, for example, of a man who in
trying to insure his temporal security decided to build larger barns
to store his possessions, and said to himself: “Soul, you have much
goods laid up for many years. Take your rest, eat, drink and make
merry.” (Lk 12,19)
The lesson Christ wanted to impart from this parable is the following:
“Seek first the kingdom of God and his justice, and all these things
(the earthly, temporal and material things we need) shall be added
unto you.” (12,31)
Christ wants us to make “bags which do not grow old, a treasure in
heaven that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth
corrupts.” (12,33)
We have to get out of this time-and-earth-bound outlook, and enter
into an exciting adventure that God offers us in his providence, in
his abiding governance of his whole creation, in his continuing
intervention in our life. It’s an adventure that cruises through time
and space but also transcends them to bring us to eternal life and
joy.
We just cannot make our life the way we want it to be. We have to live
it with God. In fact, only with God would we be able to live our life
to the full. Without him, we would be out on a limb, prone to all
sorts of danger and harm, inside and outside us.
What this means is that we need to fall in love to be able to connect
the material with the spiritual, the temporal with the eternal, the
human with the divine. But we have to love with the love of God who is
the author, essence, means and end of love. We have to be forewarned
of the many fake forms of love we tend to get tricked into.
With this love of God, we can link the small ordinary events of our
life to the big and beyond of our earthly life. And this love of God
is none other than obeying God’s commandments. Christ himself said so:
“If you love me, keep my commandments.” (Jn 14,15)
This indication was precisely reinforced in that episode of the rich
young man. Christ told him that to enter into eternal life, he has to
follow the commandments. And when the young man said he was doing all
the commandments, then Christ told him to sell all he had and to come,
follow Christ.
We cannot exaggerate this need to follow Christ as closely as possible
even to the point of leaving behind everything that we have (relictis
omnibus). Following Christ would always involve a continuing process
of self-denial. It’s a denial that would leave us increasingly empty
of ourselves to fill ourselves more and more with Christ.
This is the love of God that would enable us to properly immerse
ourselves in our earthly condition and to transcend it as well to
bring us to our ultimate destination. This is the love that makes the
little things of our day big and acquire an eternal value.
God does not want us to get out of this world. He put us here, in the
first place. But he wants us to live our life here properly, that is,
with love that usually is manifested by offering everything to God and
serving others.
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