Posted on noviembre 15, 2024 View all Gospel Reflection
Time’s Up!
If you shop at BJ’s you can see that we are now looking at the Christmas season … and November has just barely started! People are always looking ahead to get everything ready. Stores play into this by selling us things that they want us to believe are vital to our happiness and prestige in the community. I mean what kind of a household do you have if you don’t have three giant inflatable Reindeer and an LED display to give Virginia Power envy?
All too often we get caught up in these things all around us and can lose sight of the true goal and purpose of our life. We are created in the image and likeness of God, to know him, to love him and to serve him in this world and to be happy with him forever in the next life. Towards this end, the Church focuses on the end times as we approach the end of the liturgical year which ends on the Solemnity of Christ the King (Nov. 24).
Our responsorial psalm points to this when it repeats “You are my inheritance, O Lord!” So if we are talking about an inheritance, then we are also talking about the end of our life. The Book of Daniel reminds us that our life is limited on earth, but will continue for eternity: “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake: some shall live forever, others shall be an everlasting horror and disgrace.” The choice is clear: Heaven or Hell.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us that the choice is ours to make. “To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God’s merciful love means remaining separated from him for ever by our own free choice. This state of definitive exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called ‘hell’”. (CCC 1033)
But there is hope. Jesus Christ came into the world so that we might have eternal life. As the Letter to Hebrews says, “this one offered one sacrifice for sins, and took his seat at the right hand of God”. Jesus paid the price for our sinfulness, we merely need to accept it, repent, and move towards union with Christ for our salvation.
But we should not delay in our reconciliation with God. We should not procrastinate when we need forgiveness through the Sacrament of Confession. Because one day our time on earth will come to an end. And while it may not be the end of the world for all creation, it will mark the end of our life here. Let us then therefore ask the Lord for the grace to follow him daily, receive his forgiveness regularly so that he may walk and strengthen us daily on our journey towards eternal life.
