August 29, 2010

Humility

Posted in Homilies at 9:00 am

Twenty-second Sunday, Year C, August 29th, 2010 – By Father Tim McCauley

As you drive into the city of Montreal from Ottawa, the dome of St. Joseph’s Oratory dominates the skyline. What began as a dream in the heart of the poor and humble doorkeeper of the Congregation of the Holy Cross, Brother Andre ( to be declared a saint in Rome on October 17th), is now the largest shrine to St. Joseph in the world.

Inside the Oratory, there are new banners of Brother Andre that read, “The most humble of men has reached the highest step.” Brother Andre’s sanctity was founded on the rock of humility. The theme for this coming year in our diocese is the call to holiness with a focus on Brother Andre. One of Brother Andre’s characteristic virtues is also the theme of today’s first reading and Gospel – humility. “Those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted” (Lk 14:11).

All of us are called to holiness, and the foundation of this building of the spiritual life is humility. “The greater you are, the more you must humble yourself, so you will find favour in the sight of the Lord” (Sirach 3:18). Everyone can choose to be humble. If I were to say to you, “in order to be holy, you have to learn to fast on bread and water on Fridays.” You try it once and say, “I can’t do it! I tried, but I’m diabetic, or I felt faint and weak all day! I can’t do it!” But if I tell you that you must be humble in order to be holy, what are you going to say?

“I’ve tried it but it’s too hard and I can’t do it!” Are you rich to be humble? “Have you seen my house? New job, higher salary, new house! Look at those homeless Muslims in Pakistan – what a mess; they’ve got nothing! My house is almost 4000 thousand square feet! That’s the biggest house in town! Humility? That’s for the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind. Not me.” Too rich to be humble. Or perhaps you are too beautiful to be humble. “Humility? Impossible! When I look in the mirror I say, ‘Oh, darling! You are just too much!”

What does Jesus say to these people who refuse to humble themselves? To the rich man, “You fool! This very night your soul will be required of you. And the wealth you have stored up, whose will it be?” (Cf. Luke 12:20) And for others who are proud, the Lord calls you hypocrites “you are like white-washed tombs that appear beautiful on the outside but inside are full of the bones of the dead and all kinds of impurity” (Mt 23:27). Don’t forget that the body that you pamper is destined for the corruption of the grave. Do not be proud. You too can be humble.

There is instant exaltation and joy in humility. We say that we live in a culture of instant gratification. Well, isn’t it nice to know that in the spiritual life, there is a form of instant exaltation? Jesus promises, “those who humble themselves will be exalted.” He is not only speaking of the next life, for humble people such as Brother Andre, who took the lowest seat in this world, has been given a throne at the banquet in heaven. Jesus is also speaking of the here and now. The instant reward of humility is truth, and a closer relationship with Jesus based on truth.

St. Catherine of Siena wrote of the spiritual life in relation to the mystical body of Christ. She says that we begin at the feet of Jesus, humbling ourselves and confessing the truth our sins. But then Jesus in His mercy takes us into his arms and lifts us up, saying, “Friend, come up higher,” (Lk 14:10) and he lifts us up to His heart.

This is exactly what can happen during a time of adoration of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. In the first reading we heard, “to the humble, the Lord reveals his secrets” (Sirach ). In a time of humble adoration, Jesus wants to reveal to us His secrets, His plan for our life, His love for us despite all our sins. One of the main reasons to come for a holy hour (here at the parish during a 24-hour period Friday September 10 to Saturday September 11th) is your own personal spiritual benefit, but I would like to add that the parish also needs your prayers, for the gift of the Holy Spirit upon this coming Pastoral Year.

We want to begin our year with a Life in the Spirit seminar, from last September 22nd to November 3rd, with the goal of introducing or re-introducing people to a personal relationship with Christ, and releasing the gifts of the Holy Spirit. After that, we hope to continue with Small Christian communities, meeting to listen to the Word of God from the Sunday readings, to pray, to share, to grow together. But for any of this to be successful and bear fruit, we need the Holy Spirit, we need prayer –all of your prayers, especially from prayers at Mass and during Eucharistic adoration.

Back to the theme of today’s readings, humility. I want to share with you three ways we can all learn and practice humility:

1) In our relationship with others. Family is a great gift to help keep us humble. I invited my family for a BBQ last Sunday, the first time they had been in Russell for years (I know Jesus says in the Gospel not to invite your brothers and sisters for a dinner, but I don’t think this is an absolute law, but rather a warning against selfishness, and a call to generosity with the poor). I know I am lacking in humility and trust in God, because I worried about what they were going to notice or say about my lifestyle. For example, that someone would open my fridge and say, “Tim, do you like ever clean your fridge?” “Yeah . . . at Christmas . . . “ So I made sure I cleaned the fridge before they came. We were BBQ, which I never do (I prefer pasta) so I was afraid that my sister’s ex-bouncer, BBQ king boyfriend would come over and say (southern accent), “Step aside there, Tiny Tim, and let the men show you how it’s done right!”

Thankfully, none of that happened, (partly because I cleaned the fridge) but more importantly, because God does not want to humiliate us, but to gently humble us, and one way He does that is through marriage, family and relationships. Husbands and wives, parents and children, keep each other humble. Our family knows us for who we really are, and through our relationships our selfishness comes out, leading us to repentance – that’s a good thing!

In today’s Gospel, Jesus teaches us that we can practice humility in our relationship with others , by taking the lowest seat. We do that by eagerly serving the members of our own family and community, not forgetting to visit the sick or shut-ins, and to help the poor. Simplicity in our dress, demeanor and lifestyle is also important. One of my favourite little places at St. Joseph’s Oratory is the original chapel with the apartment above where Brother Andre lived in one room and slept on a tiny couch. As one women said in French when I was there on Monday, “that’s what you call living humbly.”

2) Another way to learn and practice humility is confessing our sins. Jesus tells us as much in the other Gospel passage where He draws out the same lesson, “whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” It’s the parable of the Pharisee and tax-collector who went up to the temple to pray (Lk 18:9-14). The Pharisee was proud and judgmental of others, while the tax-collector beat his breast and said, “Lord, be merciful to me a sinner.” Yes, the more you confess your sins in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, the more humble, holy and happy you will be.

3) The third way to learn and practice humility is to imitate the humble and spend time with them. The diocesan theme of this year encourages us to imitate Brother Andre and his humility, to read about his life, how he modeled himself on St. Joseph, the humble servant of the God-man Jesus Christ.

Our supreme model of humility is Jesus Christ Himself, and we contemplate His humility and spend time with Him especially during Eucharistic adoration. Jesus Christ is God from all eternity. He was seated on a heavenly throne, but He humbled Himself to take the lowest seat in coming into our world, taking on the form of a slave and becoming man. And in the Eucharist until the end of time, He humbles Himself even more, taking on the form of bread.

In a time of quiet prayer and adoration, such as during a Holy Hour in the Church, we gaze upon the host in the monstrance (display case) and say, “this is God. Jesus Himself said so, ‘this is my Body.’ How humble is God! The Creator of the universe hides himself under the form of bread, to become food for His creatures!” The more we think about this, and sit in silent prayer, the more Jesus will transform us, teach us His own humility and exalt us, saying, “Friend, come up higher,” and drawing us to His heart.

August 22, 2010

Eat, Pray, Love and the Narrow Door of Christ

Posted in Homilies at 9:00 am

Twenty-first Sunday, Year C, August 22nd, 2010 – By Father Tim McCauley

Elizabeth Gilbert, for reasons unexplained, was very unhappy in her marriage and the expectation of having children, so she divorced her husband, fell in love with a man named David, broke up with him, then went on a journey of self-discovery to eat in Italy, pray in India, and find love in Bali. She thought she had briefly fallen in love with Giovanni in Italy who was ten years younger than her, then I think she sort of found herself while at an ashram in India, then finally found “true love” (was it?) with Felipe in Bali, who was about 15 years older than her. He was from Brazil, but also worked in Australia; they thought they might make a new life together, between Bali and Brazil, Australia and America. If this sounds confusing . . . it is! Her memoirs became a best-seller, now made into the current movie by the same name, “Eat, pray, love.”

I want to comment on the popularity of this book and movie as a cultural phenomenon; it appeals to a certain mentality that thinks we can find our true selves not through the narrow door, but on the wide and easy road, that we can find our true selves apart from Christ – in self-centeredness, rather than in the sincere gift of self in love, in marriage, in commitment to our vocation, even if it is simply that of a baptized Christian living the universal call to holiness.

In her book, Gilbert, who is, I admit, a likeable and sympathetic character, decides to launch her journey of self-discovery apart from Christ. She explains that
instead of the word “God,” she could just as easily use the words “Allah” or “Shiva” or “Zeus” (13). As a non-practicing Protestant, she clearly states that she is a cultural, not a theological Christian. She cannot accept that Jesus Christ is the only path to God (14); in effect, she cannot accept that Jesus Christ is God (it is indeed a narrow door that not everyone is able to enter).

What else about this narrow door? In today’s Gospel, those who do not pass through the door stand outside the house say, “Lord, open to us! We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets” (Luke 13: 25-26) But the Lord will reply, “I do not know where you come from; go away from me, all you evildoers!” (Luke 13:27). All those who stand on the outside are all those people who have a superficial and even hypocritical relationship with Christ.
They pretend to be familiar with Him (we ate and drank with you) when in reality, they neither know Him nor love Him.

Jesus has strong words for those of us who are inside the Church, but are just going through the motions, not really praying or living a Christian lives (oh yeah, you taught in our streets, but we never really listened to you or followed you). Jesus emphasizes that there are people outside the Church who are actually closer to Him than many practicing Catholics: “many will come from east and west, from north and south, and will eat in the kingdom of God” (Luke 13:29).

There are thousands of seekers outside the Church, people like Elizabeth Gilbert and her fans, and we must respect their sincerity, their willingness to take risks, their desire for change, growth – positive qualities that complacent Catholics would do well to imitate.

Let’s be clear: salvation does not lie in being sincere but self-deluded outside the Church, nor in being hypocritical inside the Church. We discover our true selves, and find happiness and salvation, by passing through the narrow door of our baptism into Christ in the Church AND through a deep, personal knowledge and love of Christ, with the firm commitment to follow Him in our God-given vocation.

But in many of these new-age seekers, there is a fatal flaw in their very first step on their journey of self-discovery – to seek their true selves apart from the narrow door of Christ, the God-man, who alone descended from heaven and brought divinity to humanity, so that humanity could rise up to the divinity. Gilbert writes about yoga, claiming that it is “the effort to experience one’s divinity personally” (122). This is definitely not the language of Christianity. In truth, our only sharing in divinity is through our union with Christ; apart from Him, it is a delusion.
The self apart from Christ is not divine, it’s a mess! It’s amorphous, dissolving into thin air, like morning dew – there’s no substance to hold on to. The self apart from Christ is shifting sand, with nothing to stand on. The self apart from Christ is a chameleon, constantly changing – from one relationship or love-affair to another, from one job to another, from one passionate hobby or project to another.
I heard a brief piece from “Focus on the Family” on the radio the other day on marriage, with a lesson that applies to all of us. In every marriage, (in every life) there are times of crisis when one person might be passing through a difficult time, a period of profound unhappiness (as Gilbert did). At such times, we can really feel the weight of our weakness, woundedness, sin, our human fragility. There’s a temptation to run away and hide, to turn away from the other person, turning selfishly inward, a temptation to stop loving, compounded at times by the fear of showing our true selves, a fear of being unloved or rejected by the other person.

But we don’t give in, give up, or run away! No! In any vocation, we persevere. In marriage, you pray, you talk it out, you work it out together. One of the blessings of fidelity to any vocation is how it forces us to look at ourselves and better know ourselves; it also leads us through the narrow door to better know, love and follow Christ.

Elizabeth Gilbert writes that one of the things she learned from the Indian Yogis is “We wrongly believe that our limited little egos constitute our whole entire nature” (122). How different the truth brought by Christ, the truth that sets us free! The truth is, our “limited little egos” are our nature, but not our destiny. The truth is, we are not God; we are creatures, dependent on God for everything. This truth sets us free to delight in God’s love for us as we are. His love alone enables us to discover and accept our true selves, our limited little egos, and in the end, to be divinized, by Him, always and only through Christ.

I heard a talk last week on Catherine Doherty, foundress of Madonna House. (Don’t forget she was married twice and had a son; the first marriage was unhappy and annulled; the other was a match made in heaven). Fr. Bob Wild, postulator of her cause, who knew her personally, shared with us the secret of her holiness – Love. “Even if she didn’t have it all together, she kept on giving herself to others in love.”

That’s part of the secret of holiness, the narrow door that leads to salvation. To know ourselves in Christ, that we don’t have it all together, that sometimes our life is a mess and we’re a wreck, but we know we are loved, and by God’s grace we are going to persevere in giving ourselves to others in love.
Sometimes, when we feel tired of loving, we dream of escaping the burdens and responsibilities of our vocation, marriage, family, work. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could all take an “eat, pray, love” vacation to some exotic locale? I would switch it up a bit, though: I would go to Italy to pray (the Pope is in Rome!) and India to eat. Then I would go to Bali not to fall in love (I’m already in love, with Christ and all of you!) but just to lie on the beach and relax!

But can anyone here actually afford such a journey of self-discovery, to Italy, India and Bali? Oh, well, I guess we are sort of stuck in Russell. Only rich people can be fulfilled . . . In actual fact, we have everything we need and everything we could possibly desire right here, because we have Christ in the Eucharist. Right here and now, we eat, pray and love. First, love. God loved us first (John ). We respond with love, by offering the gift of ourselves to God in the sacrifice of the Mass. We also pray, obviously – we’re in Church! And we eat, not just any perishable food, but food that lasts to eternal life, the Body and Blood of Christ.

August 15, 2010

The Assumption

Posted in Homilies at 9:00 am

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, August 15th, 2010 – By Father Tim McCauley

In an interview with Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict) in 2000, the journalist Peter Seewald asked him, “We might sometimes think that women, representing as it were a second attempt (Eve created after Adam), are an improved version of creation, more successful than men. They seem to be not only more beautiful but also maybe more fully developed as persons.” Who is more beautiful? Who is more developed as a person – man or woman? What would our future Pope say to that?

“I wouldn’t want to get into that argument.” But then he added, “it is indisputable that women have particular gifts, that in many ways they are stronger and have a greater capacity for suffering” and a few other comments (God and the World, 81).

Today, on the feast of the Assumption of Mary, body and soul into heaven, I would like to talk a little bit about the beauty of woman, especially the Blessed Virgin Mary. But first, a few words on this feast day itself.

On the screen is a painting of the Assumption of Mary hanging in the National Gallery of Ottawa (free Thursdays), painted by Neri di Bicci in 1455. We see some of the apostles looking into the tomb, others looking up to heaven. This painting communicates the belief that Mary died, but shortly after (some say three days later) she was assumed body and soul into heaven. It is interesting that the Assumption was only solemnly defined as an infallible teaching in 1950. But everyone believed it back in 1455, and in the early Church; I visited a Church in Jerusalem last November where, according to one tradition, the assumption actually took place.

The Assumption is a teaching implicit in the Bible itself. In the first reading, we hear of a woman in heaven, clothed with the sun. This mysterious women is a multi-faceted image: she represents the persecuted Church, yes, but this woman who “gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations” (Rev 12:5), this woman who gave birth to the Messiah, Christ, is also none other than Mary, the Mother of God, who has been assumed body and soul into heaven.

I don’t have time to go into detail, but Scripture also reports that Enoch, for example, was also assumed into heaven:

“Enoch was taken up and did not experience death: he was no more, because God took him; because before his assumption he was acknowledged to have pleased God” (Heb 11:5) (p. 317 Mariology). If Enoch was assumed, why not the Mother of God? The Assumption of Mary also follows from the fact that Scripture and the Church fathers portray Mary as the New Eve, without sin. To be without sin is to be immune from death as we know it. Mary, being conceived without sin, did not suffer death and decay as we do. She was raised body and soul into the glory of heaveni

The teaching of the Assumption of Mary, body and soul into heaven reminds us that the human body is good and beautiful. And those who are pure of heart see the image of God in the human body. When I was on holiday at the end of June, in Washington and NYC, I had the opportunity to look at a lot of beautiful women – mostly in paintings at the National Gallery and the Metropolitan Museum of Art! And most of those of the Blessed Virgin Mary! (Although I did see some living women as well . . . about 4 million in NYC).

I’m amazed at how many thousands of paintings of the Blessed Virgin Mary have appeared in the history of western art, partly because she is a beautiful woman who radiates and communicates the presence of God and helps men especially contemplate the beauty of heaven. This painting of the Assumption by Neri di Bicci was painted as an altarpiece, meaning it was placed on the altar, and the priest and people would look at this painting during Mass. Gazing upon the beauty of this painting would help people worship God.

In our culture, I believe that icons and paintings of Mary can be an effective antidote to pornography. Producers of pornography misuse and abuse the body of woman, turning something sacred into an object and instrument to incite lust in the hearts of men. The great painters and iconographers of our Christian tradition paint the beauty of Mary to turn the hearts of men toward God.

Husbands here, imagine if you are on holiday with your family, and you and your wife go for a walk on the beach (for those who are not married, imagine that you are walking with a sister or female friend). Are you going to stare at the other women on the beach? No! Because you love your wife. You are looking at her and listening to her. So imagine you go for a walk on the beach later, alone.
Are you going to stare at other women then? No, of course not! Because you still carry your wife in your heart and mind, and mentally and spiritually, you can turn to that image in your mind.

So choosing not to look with lust at other women on the beach or choosing not to look at pornography is not all about painful sacrifice, repression, self-denial. “Oh, OK, I don’t want to sin so I’m just going to look down at the sand or the sidewalk. This is so boring . . . “ No! You choose to look away from certain lustful images of beauty because you want to look at someone more beautiful: for husbands to look at your wife, and for all men, to nurture a devotion to Mary and learn to look upon her beauty which will always lead us closer to God.

I have a small copy of our parish icon of Mary that I take with me while traveling, in part to have a piece of the parish with me while traveling (copies on sale in the foyer for $10). It would be possible to have even smaller versions made, that men could keep in their pockets. So if ever they are tempted to look with lust at a woman, they could take out this icon of the Immaculate Virgin Mary, and look at the most beautiful woman who ever lived, who is now body and soul in heaven.

For women too, I think a great benefit comes from learning to look upon the beauty of Mary. Sometimes, women in our culture can be influenced by certain surgically enhanced images of women and air-brushed photos of famous women such as this one of Britney Spears on the cover of Cosmo (when I bought this the other day at Foodland, Laura who works there asked me why I was buying it. “Because I like Britney Spears. You got a problem with that?” No, I told her it was to contrast with images of Mary). You women can be tempted at times to compare yourselves with these impossible ideals, and you can forget your own unique, unrepeatable beauty that God has given you.

You might at first think that if you compare yourself with Mary, who was perfect and without sin, you might feel ugly, unworthy, inadequate. But no! Mary has the opposite effect. She lives in the light of God. She is always, eternally, and at this very moment, gazing upon the source of all created beauty, the Holy Trinity. When you look upon her, she will gently lead you to where she is gazing and to find your true self in the mirror of the eyes of Christ; she will help you discover, appreciate and guard your own personal beauty.

Mary will help all of us, men and women, to find our deepest identity, goodness, truth and beauty in God, in adoration of God, in adoration of Jesus in the Eucharist. Some people like to suntan because in our culture, brown skin is considered more attractive than pale, white skin (hundreds of years ago, it was the opposite). Basking in the sun makes them feel more beautiful, but it is a beauty that is literally skin deep.
How much deeper the transformation when we bask in the sunshine of Christ’s presence radiating from the tabernacle or from the monstrance during a time of adoration.

I am so encouraged to see that there are people in the parish who have a desire for more prayer, worship and adoration of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. The men’s prayer group, for example, is spearheading an initiative to begin this new year in our parish in September, with 24 hours of adoration, starting Friday, September 10th to Saturday, September 11th. More information will be coming soon!

Since today is a great Marian feast day that happens to fall on a Sunday, I thought it was an appropriate time, after communion, to renew our parish consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which was first done in May 5th, 2007. As I mention in the bulletin, the deepest reason for this consecration to Mary is the example of Jesus Christ. The first thing He did when He came into the world was to entrust Himself totally to Mary, so He invites us to do the same. Pope Pius XII consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on October 31st, 1942, and John Paul II renewed, expanded and completed this consecration on March 24th, 1984. He also promoted true devotion to Mary as taught by St. Louis de Montfort (which I also follow); there are brochures on this true devotion in the foyer for anyone who is interested.

Finally, in honour of this feast day of our Lady, I invite all the men here to tell the women in your life – mothers, wives, daughters, sisters, others – how beautiful they are. We men thank all the women in our lives for showing us a glimpse of the physical, moral and spiritual perfection of the Mother of God. May our Blessed Mother, assumed into heaven, intercede for all of us, that we will increasingly be drawn up to heaven in mind and spirit, to contemplate the beauty of God.

August 8, 2010

Treasure

Posted in Homilies at 9:00 am

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 08, 2010 – By Deacon Thomas Stephenson

“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Do we ever stop to ask ourselves what it is that we treasure? Where should our real treasure be? Jesus tells us quite clearly that it is not to be found in our possessions, in material things, but that the unfailing treasure is in heaven. So while we are here, living our lives on earth, we should be faithfully following the Lord’s teachings in order to fill our heavenly purses. Or, for us men, perhaps we can say our heavenly wallets. As we focus our efforts on increasing our store of spiritual treasure in heaven, our hearts will naturally follow, and we will continue to grow in faith, in our relationship with God.

Now, heaven may seem distant to us. We tend to live for today, and perhaps we look far enough ahead to set some money aside for our children’s university education, or plan for our retirement. These are worthwhile and necessary goals. And, it’s easy to consider these plans, because they relate to something tangible; it can be more difficult to consider planning for heaven. We can’t see it; the knowledge we have of heaven comes from divine revelation, rather than human experience. So it is only through faith that we can maintain our focus, and persevere in our journey.

In the second reading from the Letter to the Hebrews we hear: “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” We are given Abraham and Sarah as examples of great faith. They acted based on God’s word, trusting in His promise. They left their home and travelled to a foreign land, to a destination unknown to them when they began their journey. They trusted that the Lord would give them a son, because they knew the Lord would be faithful to His promise. They believed in the Lord, even though they could not see the outcome of what He was asking of them. They continued despite the troubles they encountered, despite their age and the amount of time that passed, never losing faith.

Like Abraham and Sarah, we must have great faith. We must patiently be faithful, keeping a vigilant watch for the return of the master, like the good servant in the Gospel, who was rewarded for being faithful. For us, this is not just a matter of being prepared for our death. It is about doing the master’s will, God’s will, not only because He will be returning at an unknown hour, but because it is what He has asked us to do. Let’s look at the situations of the bad slaves Jesus described, as they all have similarities to people today, and we may have a little bit of each of them in ourselves. The slave who misbehaved because the master was delayed was wilfully disobedient; he was consciously unfaithful. Perhaps he felt that, since the master was delayed, he wasn’t ever coming back. He intentionally did not follow the instructions he had been given. There are people like that today, who feel that they will never be called to account, or that they can do whatever they want because no one, including God, can tell them otherwise, or perhaps because they haven’t seen Him they think that God doesn’t even exist. They have been told what God wants, but they refuse to listen.

Then there is the slave who knew what the master wanted, but didn’t do as he was instructed. He was unfaithful, but not maliciously so. Through laziness, imprudence, or weakness, at one time or another all of us are unfaithful, too. We have been taught our faith, so we are informed of God’s will, but we come up short of being faithful at times.

Now, let’s look at the last slave. He was not informed of the master’s will, but still, he did things that deserved punishment. Even without explicit instruction, he should have known better. All people have the natural law written in their heart. Even if they have not been taught, there are certain things that they cannot truly say they don’t know are wrong. Whether it’s theft, or murder, or in such currently controversial areas such as sexuality, bioethics, and abortion, we know instinctively what is right and what is wrong, and all are expected to act accordingly, and act faithfully up to the level of their knowledge. Peter asked if this parable was for everyone. Jesus doesn’t answer directly, but this indicates that everyone is included in the expectation to serve God.

“It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” God will always be faithful to us, and to His promises to us. Our faith itself is a great treasure, a gift from God, because He wants us to get to heaven. For most of us, we received this gift through our parents, as it has been passed down over the generations. So for those of us who are parents, it’s important to make sure we teach our faith to our children. Our faith is the key to our relationship with God, and to eventually obtaining our heavenly treasure. As Christians, and especially as Catholics, we must guard our faith, nurture it, and care for it. We need to protect it from the damage that our culture can inflict on it. Our culture has many good things that can strengthen our faith, but we need to avoid those areas that can weaken it. Again, it is not as much a matter of being prepared, which is of course important; it is about doing the Lord’s will always, whether or not He is coming soon.
If we truly recognise that our treasure is in heaven, we will continually make the effort to grow in holiness, to grow in our relationship with God. The more we work at that, the more our hearts will follow, and our desire for God, and our faithfulness, will increase further. Then, no matter when He comes, He will find us alert and waiting for Him. And He will welcome us into His house, where we will receive the treasure of eternal life.