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Friday, October 19, 2007
...a Gift, Not a Reward.
Just about everyone who ends up listening to the Mass celebrant's homily today has almost certainly been baptized in spirit and made some kind of commitment to walking in the Lord's footsteps from now on.
Ideally speaking, that would mean to say that all the parts of our lives should be well integrated and in full alignment with one another.
For example, our conduct in the parish parking lot after Mass should match the way of living we prayed about just minutes earlier.
Furthermore, the conduct in our household, the business practices, and the private lives that we have for the day should be well aligned and matched with our faith commitment and the example of Jesus.
To make it short, our deeds and actions for the day should match the words of faith that we have kept to ourselves.
But the way i look at it, that's not the way it works with us in reality.
Because whether we admit it to ourselves and to others, there are locked rooms in everyone of us; sometimes they are full of secrets; sometimes their contents maybe even well known to all, but still locked in any case, and cut off from the rest of the "house"- that is our very own life.
Our goal therefore, as we strive and struggle to grow more holy and more whole is to open those rooms, face what's inside, and re-align what's in there to match what's best in us.
It may even take a lifelong process, one that in fact will not be finished even the day when we face our death.
Thus, as we face the Lord after we've taken our last breath after a lifetime of labor, we should not to say, "Lord, I've come to claim my reward." Rather, we must say, "Lord, I've come to receive your gift."
We should know better now that more than anything else in Heaven's sake, the eternal life we have always hoped for, remains a gift that our Father wants to give us, not because we've earned it but because He gives it to us as His gift but not His reward.
Happy Friday to all .....
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