by Fr. Bel R. San Luis, SVD
Somebody quipped, “At his funeral, an atheist (non-believer) is all dressed up but nowhere to go.”
Part of the Halloween celebration is to remind us where to go after death, unlike the godless and atheists.
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For us believers in God and Christ’s followers, our ultimate goal is to become a saint. When you tell that to somebody, chances are he or she will look at you oddly and say, “To be a saint? That’s not for me. I’m too worldly for that.”
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But the truth is that our ultimate goal on earth is – and should be – to become a saint. In short, to be with God in heaven. If you don’t aspire to do that, where will you go in the next life?
Someone said, “There are only two places in the next life: the smoking (Hell) and non-smoking (Heaven) area. Will you spend your eternity in the smoking or non-smoking area?”
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Did you ever pause and ponder on that? And are you doing every means to achieve that goal?
This is why the French novelist Leon Bloy wrote: “The only tragedy in life is not to be a saint.”
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Becoming a saint does not mean imitating the extraordinary feats of the martyrs who bore torments, persecutions and died for their faith centuries ago. If you can do it, great.
Becoming a saint in our modern times means more of imitating people who stumbled and kept rising again morally and spiritually.
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For instance, they may have committed mistakes in their marriage or religious life, but kept rising, learning from their mistakes, and faithfully following God’s will again. Remember such saints like Peter who thrice denied the Lord, Paul once a fierce persecutor of the early Christians; Matthew, the hated tax collector, the sinful Mary Magdalene?
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If such people have anything extraordinary about them, it is that they never stopped to be TH (Trying Hard) to be faithful to the Lord and his teachings in spite of their weaknesses and failures. They were ordinary people who lived extraordinary lives for their faith.
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As regards heaven, the Lord Jesus at the Last Supper said clearly: “In my Father’s House, there are many mansions. I am going ahead and prepare a place for you.”
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By the way, the “mansions” Jesus is referring to are not those amassed by corrupt politicians and people who enriched themselves from the pork barrel and other ill-gotten wealth!
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QUIPS TO PONDER. If you think you are indispensable, take a walk around the local cemetery or columbary. Rich or poor, famous or infamous, all life leads to the grave.
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You may party in Hell, but you will be the barbeque!
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Honk if you love Jesus. Text while driving if you want to MEET Him soonest.
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Try Jesus. If you don’t like Him, the devil will always take you back.
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HEAVENLY TREASURES. Our Lord said, “Store up treasures in heaven where neither rust nor moth can consume.” How about doing that by SHARING your blessings with needy seminarians and sick indigents we are supporting.
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