We continue today with our theme of prayer and it’s urgency for our lives. Last week a man approached Jesus to settle an argument he was having over the inheritance. Jesus pointed them to what was most important- an intimate relationship with God; nothing is more important than possessing and being possess by the God who is Love. And so, Jesus makes it even clearer to us in our Gospel today- “sell your belongings- for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Jesus tells a couple of parables to give this a true sense of urgency. We are only here on earth to learn how to love, to learn how to love as God loves us so that we might be intimately united with Him here on earth and forever with Him in Heaven. Live is very short, and so is our heart set on Jesus and on an intimate self-sacrificing relationship with Him more than on anything or anyone else? Is our heart set on Him alone or is it divided?
Jesus knows us well and so He starts His words to His disciples and to us with “Do not be afraid.” There is a great temptation- to withdraw from God because we are inordinately afraid, afraid of the unknown, afraid of what it may cost us, afraid of love. And so Jesus asks us a very important question today- are we ready? Have we really taken the time to examine our readiness? Are we truly, truly ready to meet him when we die, do we love Him enough now to want to spend an eternity intimately united with Him, and so if He came to us tonight would we really want and desire to go with Him?
Sadly, most souls live their lives in denial of the reality of death, after all how seldom we hear of the four last things, that is death, judgment, heaven and hell, in our day. Some even naively and ignorantly believe that everyone goes to heaven, even though many there are who do not love Jesus with their whole heart, soul and mind. How can anyone possibly spend forever intimately united with Jesus in love, if they have not have not had an intimate relationship with Him here on earth. Is their denial of death really a type of fear resulting from their failure to love Jesus?
Last week I shared with you a story a priest I know told me. This same priest told me a story of a man in his parish who happened to be rather obnoxious during Mass one Sunday. During his homily, which was about being prepared for death by loving God now, this person caught the priest attention because he talked with his neighbor throughout the whole homily and laughed in mockery at the message of the priest as he did so. He came up to receive Jesus at Holy Communion with the same mocking attitude smiling, really more like sneering at the priest. That night the priest was called to anoint this person. He had electrocuted himself with a hair dryer. He was dead. Was this person ready to die?
Another priest friend told me the story of another man. This man tried to live his Christian life with much fervor out of love for Jesus. Two of his sons became priests. After the death of his wife, he joined his sons in the monastery. On Christmas day, he was at Mass. He received Holy Communion and returned to his pew for his thanksgiving prayer to tell the Jesus truly present in soul how much he loved Him. He died right in the pew with Jesus still bodily present in his soul. Who of these two was really ready to die? )
So then how do we know that we are ready? Well, Jesus gives us clues to the answer to this question in the first part of the Gospel today. First, Jesus tells us we should not be afraid, fear is a sign that we are not ready. We heard these words of Jesus repeated by our last Holy Father immediately after he was elected Pope—“Be not afraid!” John Paul knew then and we too know now that we truly live in a world of fear. We have much to fear in our day and with good reason. Everything from crime to war, economic woes to terrorist attacks blanket the newspapers and television today. What will happen next? This fear touches our lives very deeply, whether we want to admit it or not—“what will happen to our families, our children?” It is very easy to fall into despair, overwhelmed by feeling afraid. It is true that we need to be cautious because of the very real danger we face, yet we cannot have the dread of this fear dominate and control our lives and take our trust in God away.
So too when we hear the seriousness of the words of Jesus spoken directly to each one of us today, they are serious words, words warning us to be ready to meet him. Upon hearing these words we can become even more fearful. We fear not being ready to met Christ--We fear the judgment day. Fear of Judgment can actually be a good thing because it can knock souls out of their complacency and turn them back to God saying, “I am sorry because I fear the loss of heaven and the pains of hell.” Some don’t want to face this fear so they never think about our death, after all they think it’s along time down the road, we have plenty of time. And so they refuse to repent, refuse to rid their lives of those actions or things that keep them from an intimate relationship with Christ. Others develop an irrational fear, one that takes them away from God who they think is ready to strike them with a lighting bolt from heaven.
A good fear of judgment however, is a sincere and reverential feeling that a person experiences before the tremendous majesty of God, especially when he reflects upon his own infidelity and the danger of being "found wanting" (Dan 5:27) at the eternal judgment which no one can escape. The believer goes and places himself before God with a "contrite spirit" and a "humbled heart" (cf. Ps 50 [51] :19), knowing well that he must await his own salvation "with fear and trembling" Jesus however desires us to even rise above this type of reverential fear. He wants us to fear, not so much hell, but instead fear offending him because we love Him more than we love ourselves…I am sorry most of all because by my sins I have crucified you my loving savior and offend Thy infinite mercy.
Jesus desires our salvation because he loves us so much, he wants us to fear hell, but only because it would be an eternity away from intimacy with Him. Jesus wants us to know that united with Him in Love we have nothing to fear in this life or in the life to come; with Jesus there is no fear only love, without Jesus fear dominates and controls our lives. For this very reason Jesus comes to us in the Eucharist.
In the Eucharist He is intimately with us to ease our fears by helping us to become prepared for anything this world has to offer by growing in our love for Him and for our neighbor. But we for our part must receive Him with faith, with trust and with great love for Him to be able to work in our hearts, to rid our hearts of our hearts of all fear and fill them with His love instead. And so to the degree we love and believe in Jesus in the Holy Eucharist is the degree we will be ready to meet Him when He comes for us. The more we love and believe in His true present there the less we will fear.
Through the grace of the Eucharist, which comes to us through our faith and love in Him, we will live in union with God’s Holy Will, trusting in His divine mercy by actively seeking his forgiveness for our sins, especially in confession. We will no longer live lives of dreadful fear, but lives of Holy fear, fear in which we love our God so much, we would never purposely chose anything, anything that would displease him. Then instead of being full of fear of death, we will actually begin to long for our last day on this earth in order that we can finally be with our beloved Jesus, united fully to Him, and with Him to the Father and the Holy Spirit.
Let us ask in today’s Mass ask for our Blessed Mother to obtain for us from the Holy Spirit the gift of Holy fear to move us to a stronger love for Jesus. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to slowly but surely, take away all the other treasures we hold on to, particularly the treasure of our own wills and sin so that for us our only treasure is to by one with Jesus and His Sacred Heart truly present in the Holy Eucharist. And where our treasure is, so to will our heart be. Amen. God Bless you.