No earthly attachment to enter heaven

THIS was clearly spelled out by Christ in that episode about the rich young man who asked Christ what he had to do to enter the kingdom of God. (cfr. Lk 10,17-30) We know how that story ended. It led Christ’s disciples to be utterly incredulous. “Who then can be saved?” they said after Christ told them that is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. 

 With all the explosion of the many attractive, tempting and riveting things we have today, we cannot deny that we really need to sharpen our virtues of prudence and detachment, otherwise there is no other way but for us to be swallowed and trapped by them and to lose our way to heaven. 

 We just have to have clear guiding ideas of how to be prudent and detached in the context of the rapid developments of the world today. For sure, the most fundamental principle that we should always remember and follow is that everything should be referred to God before, during and after the use of these worldly things. 

 Let’s never forget St. Paul’s clear advice as to what motive we should have in all our activities and affairs. “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” (1 Cor 10,31) 

 We should check ourselves often to see if indeed that is the motive of all our thoughts, words and deeds. If we notice that we are moved to do something, like using the internet, for example, just to satisfy our curiosity, or just to acquire knowledge or anything that can only show self-interest, then we need to rectify our intentions. 

 We should only be driven by the motive of giving glory to God, which in concrete terms is translated into loving God and loving everybody else, by knowing them better and serving them wholeheartedly. 

 To be sure, this is what is proper to us, and would lead us to our human maturity and Christian perfection. Of course, to be realistic, we cannot deny that we are often hounded by our weaknesses and the many temptations around. And so, it should be no surprise to us that we need to do some struggling, some fighting. 

 When we notice that there is no struggle involved, we should have good reason to suspect that we are going the wrong way, that we are clearly succumbing to our own weaknesses and the many temptations around, and that we are actually harming if not destroying ourselves. 

 We should have constant awareness of the presence of God, of his continuing interventions in our life, of his will and ways. That’s the only way we can sharpen the virtues of prudence and detachment. The ideal situation is that the use of the modern technologies, for example, would make our knowledge and love for God and others grow. If not, then they become nothing other than dangers. 

 When we take God for granted, there is no other way but for us to be at the mercy of our blind instincts and other bodily impulses, and of the worldly trends that are insensitive to the spiritual and supernatural character of our life. These days, it’s imperative that we teach everyone as early as possible to refer everything to God. It would be good that right in the family environment, the children are already taught how to refer things to God. 

 That would not comprise as an act of brain-washing, but rather as a way of providing them with what everyone of us most need—that is, to be with God!

Training our body for eternal life

AS what our Christian faith teaches us, our body is also meant for eternal life. This is evidenced by the fact that Christ, the pattern of our humanity, rose from the dead and ascended into heaven not only with his soul but also with his body. The same with Our Lady, the perfect embodiment of how man should be, who was also assumed into heaven body and soul. 

 We need to train our body to develop a certain appetite for eternal life and for heaven, where our definitive state of life takes place. Especially these days when practically the world culture is immersed in worldliness, we need to make some extraordinary effort to extricate our body from the mire of brute carnality and animality, marked with naked sensuality, lust, greed, hatred, etc. 

 Let’s remember that there is a certain mutual relation between our body and our soul. The condition of one somehow affects the other. We should not just be concerned with our spiritual soul. Our body also needs to be well taken care of, since it is the very temple of the Holy Spirit. 

 Let’s always remember that our body is an essential part of our humanity. It’s meant to be animated by a spiritual soul whose life is always a participation of the life of God. As our catechism would put it, our body “participates in the dignity of the image of God.” (CCC 364) 

 Indeed, if we would just take this truth of our faith seriously, then we can and ought to see God in our body also! Our body need not be an obstacle in our relation with God and with everybody else. On the contrary, it should be the means and instrument to show our love God and for others. 

 Thus, we need to often ask ourselves what truly delights our body. Is it just some material and earthly things, like food, money, etc.? If God and the things of God are not its true and ultimate delight, then let’s realize that there is something gravely amiss which we should try to correct immediately. 

 The danger our body can pose to our relation with God can happen when it is left on its own, ruled simply by instincts and emotions, and by the purely worldly values and conditionings. To correct this, there is no other formula other than that spelled out by Christ himself: deny yourself and carry the cross. (cfr. Mt 16,24) Yes, we cannot over-emphasize the need for bodily mortification and discipline. 

 In fact, to be realistic, we always need to subject our body to some severe form of discipline, because our body is always weak no matter how strong it looks physically. It will always tend to indulge itself to madness, often falling into some forms of addiction and bondage. It’s our built-in potential traitor. 

 More than this, we need to teach our body to develop a strong attraction to the things of God—prayer, sacraments, sacrifices, devotions and other forms of piety. We obviously need to do this with due consideration to the need for naturalness, so we avoid unnecessary attention from others, and instead help others to be drawn also to the things of God. 

 Our Lady and many other saints can truly help us in this lifelong endeavor. Let’s see to it that we have a strong and abiding devotion to them since they have no other purpose than to bring us closer to God, to heaven, to eternal life!

We need to persevere in faith

NO matter what happens in our life, we should never lose our faith in God. We know that our life’s drama can get heavy, even to the point of being unbearable, but we should never forget that God is always around and his providence is ever active and unbeatable. We should not allow ourselves to let fear and worries to dominate us. 

 We are reminded of this point in that gospel episode where Christ told his disciples about someone who had a friend with some urgent need, who came to him in the middle of the night asking for bread. (cfr. Lk 11,5-13) 

 At first, the friend was refused since everyone in the house was already fast asleep. But then, the friend insisted so much that the one inside the house just had to give in to the request. 

 From this, Christ imparted the following lesson to his disciples: “Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you. For every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. And which of you, if he asks his father bread, will he give him a stone? or a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?” 

 When we find ourselves in some dire straits, we should remember this precious lesson Christ taught his disciples. Things may not come as we want them to be, but we should keep in our heart of hearts the belief that God always has something better for us. With him, everything will work out for the good. (cfr. Rom 8,28) 

 When we persevere in our faith, we know that God always takes care of us. There is never any time when he is indifferent to us. And we have to remind ourselves also that even in our worst condition when we find ourselves at odds with God himself, he will do everything to bring us back to him. 

 And so, we just have to learn, through our persevering faith, how to live always under the providence of God. We need to remind ourselves strongly about this fundamental truth about ourselves. That’s because we are practically forgetting it and are increasingly suffering the dire consequences. 

 We have to live under God’s providence, understanding first of all what providence is. Many of us are ignorant of this basic truth, even if in the many fields of human endeavor, we have reached the highest limits. 

 As our Catechism puts it, providence are “the dispositions by which God guides his creation toward their perfection…By his providence God protects and governs all things which he has made…” (n. 302) 

 Furthermore, the Catechism says that “the solicitude of divine providence is concrete and immediate; God cares for all, from the least things to the great events of the world and its history.” (n. 303) 

 We have to realize then that God is constantly intervening in our lives, a reality that we should always acknowledge and correspond to properly. That is why, we need to cultivate our spiritual life, our relation with God which is otherwise called as our religion, that has to be constantly nourished through a life of piety that should be kept as vibrant as possible. That is why the Catechism tells us that “Jesus asks for childlike abandonment to the providence of our heavenly Father who takes care of his children’s smallest needs.” (n. 305). We should not dare to live solely on our own, something that we need effort to uphold, since our tendency is to think that we can simply be on our own.