Luke 12, 32-48. August 11, 2013 Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time.
We continue today with the same theme that we heard in the Gospel readings of last few weeks; namely, prayer and its urgency for our lives. Remember, last week a man approached Jesus to settle an argument over the inheritance of his father. And Jesus pointed out what was most important- an intimate relationship with God; nothing is more important than possessing and being possess by God Who is Love Itself. And so, Jesus makes it even clearer to us in our Gospel today- “sell all your belongings- for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Then, Jesus tells a couple of parables to emphasize this sense of urgency.
One of the main truths of our existence is that we are only here on earth in order to learn how to love. And not just any love, but to learn how to love as God loves, so that we might be intimately united with Him here on earth and forever with Him in His Heavenly Kingdom. Life is very short, and so more than anyone or anything else, is our heart set on the One thing that matters…that is, on Jesus and on an intimate, self-sacrificing relationship of love with Him, and through Him, with the Most Blessed Trinity? Is our heart set on God alone or is it divided among many things?
Jesus knows us well, and so today He starts His words to His disciples and to us with “Be not afraid!” There is a great temptation- to withdraw from God because we are inordinately afraid, afraid of the unknown, afraid of the future and what it might hold for us, afraid of what an all out sacrificial love of God may cost us. And so today Jesus, again, is asking us a very important question - 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 to want to, even right now, spend an eternity intimately united with Him and with the Father and the Holy Spirit? If He came to us tonight or even at this Holy Mass, would we really want and even desire to go with Him?
Sadly, most souls today, I think, live their lives in denial of the reality of death, either from fear, presumption or just plain indifference. As a result, they fail to take seriously the most important four last things, that is: death, judgment, heaven and hell. Some even naively and ignorantly believe that everyone goes to heaven, even though there are many who do not love Jesus with their whole heart, soul, mind and all of their strength and do not spend anytime whatsoever contemplating the in-dwelling Trinity presence within their soul.
But, how can anyone possibly expect to spend forever intimately united with Jesus, and His Father in a marital embrace of Love (the Holy Spirit), if they have not have not striven to have an intimate relationship with Him here on earth. And so, isn’t it because so many are not ready to meet Jesus, because they fail to love Him fully, that they have to deny the reality of death or to believe that everybody goes to heaven regardless; even though, Jesus Himself says otherwise?
So then how do we know that we are ready? Well, Jesus gives us clues to the answer of this question in the first part of the Gospel today. Jesus tells us we should not be afraid, for fear is actually a sign that we are not ready. We heard these words of Jesus repeated by our last Holy Father John Paul II, immediately after he was elected Pope—“Be not afraid!” Blessed John Paul knew then and we too know now that we truly live in a world filled with fear.
We have so much to fear in our day and with good reason. Everything from crime and great violence, to serious economic woes and terrorist attacks blanket the newspapers and television. And we hear of so many young people dying, even children being murdered. 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, to our children?” And so, it is very easy to fall into despair, overwhelmed by feeling afraid; or worse, just to turn it all out and go into denial. It is true that we need to be cautious because of the very real dangers we face, yet we cannot have the dread of this fear dominate and control our lives and take our trust in God away or have it cause us to go off and bury our head in the sand.
It can be the same way, when we hear the seriousness of the words of Jesus spoken directly to each one of us today, serious words, words warning us to be ready to meet him. Upon hearing these words, unless we are totally indifferent, we can become even more fearful. We fear not being ready to meet Christ--We fear the judgment day. While this can sometimes lead to an irrational fear, fear of Judgment is normally 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.” A good fear of judgment John Paul II writes:
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 of God and His divine Judgment. He wants us to fear, not so much hell, but instead fear offending the Father because we love Him even more than we love ourselves…”I am sorry most of all because by my sins I have crucified you my loving savior and offended Thy (the Father’s), infinite mercy.”
Jesus desires our salvation because he loves us so much, he wants us to fear hell; yes, but only, only because it would be an eternity away from intimacy with Him and His Father in the Love of the Holy Spirit—the eternal union for which we have been created. 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, for nothing can separate from the love of Christ.
Without Jesus however, sin and fear dominates and controls our lives, but again with Jesus there is no fear only love; without Jesus indifference invades our daily lives and makes our hearts cold; but with Jesus, we do all things, no matter how great or small, with our set hearts on fire for Love of God and love of neighbor for love of Him. It is for this very reason Jesus comes to us in the Eucharist, which is the fullness of the Kingdom the Father is please to give us. The Eucharist is the Blessed Sacrament of “Be Not Afraid!!!”
In the Eucharist Jesus our Lord and God in His Human nature is intimately with us to ease our fears by helping us to grow in our love for Him, for His Church and for our neighbor. By our faithful prayer in front of the Eucharistic Jesus we fall ever more deeply in love with Him and learn to trust in Him fully. We become prepared for anything this world has to offer, even death, for we become filled with God’s own love. We then no longer live lives of indifference or lives of dreadful fear; but instead, live lives of Holy zeal and Holy fear in which we love our God so much, that we never, never purposely chose anything, anything that displeases him but only that which He desires. In this way our very lives become a prayer of love offered to God, not only are we prepared and unafraid, but the Kingdom is ours, for tfe Father is pleased to give It to us because where our treasure is, there will our heart be.
Our Lady, Mother of the Holy Eucharist, help us to pray. Give us more fully the Heart of Your Eucharistic Son. Amen.
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