then heaven is ours, is what the message seems to say. But that’s not possible. We can’t “earn”, or make our way into heaven by our efforts alone.“… feed the hungry, cloth the naked, care for the sick, welcome the stranger,”
“When did I see you hungry, thirsty, naked, ill, or in prison and not help you?”
This past week, I was awakened by a loud radio music coming through my window. At first, I said to myself, “Someone was in need of a place to rest.”
But then it happened again on the second night and it got under skin. So irritated, I went down stairs, and told the homeless person to “knock it off”. The face of Jesus whom I did not recognize in the person was my failure.
And so, maybe today is the wakeup call I need, the blast of cold air that will sober me up to the deepest realities of who I am as a child of God and as a disciple of Jesus.
Dear friends, every time we reach out to satisfy a need of someone else, we become better persons. We become a more loving person. We become more like Jesus Christ Himself.
When we feed the hungry, visit the sick and those in prison, when we find a home for the homeless and clothes for those without enough, we are becoming a kinder, nicer and more caring person.
There are a million things that can be done for others. And it is only the loving people who can enjoy the company, like themselves, in what is called heaven.
As St. Therese, the “Little Flower” expressed in her Diary, “I spend my heaven by doing good on earth.”
And so, as another Church year comes to a close, we have the opportunity to look back and see what we've done, whether we've become the people God created us to be, caring and treating one another as we are loved and cared for by our God and King.
Today we have the opportunity to make known the goodness of God by conforming our lives more perfectly to that of our King.
That’s what this day helps us do.
Amen.