Our Epistle challenges us to know our destination and to strive to get there. Hopefully we can all agree that our ultimate destination is Heaven and union with God. How we get there plays out differently for each of us depending upon our God given vocation and our state in life.
No matter the length of one’s life or the lack thereof our destination should be Heaven. No matter the riches that we amass or the lack thereof our destination should be Heaven. No matter the titles that we procure or the lack thereof our destination should be Heaven. In this final goal we should all be equal.
It is easy for us to believe that life on this earth is long and thus we will be given many years to get it together. As life trudges on one eventually sees the possibility that the end is in sight. No matter how old that you may be remember that your destination should be Heaven. Our time on this earth is truly unknown to us and in all actuality it is so short. As Saint Paul’s states in his Epistle: “Although we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord” and “we would rather leave the body and go home to the Lord.”
If our ultimate destination is to be Heaven we must listen to the words of Saint Paul and be courageous. We must come to “walk by faith, not by sight.” What we do in the here and the now effects us for all eternity. Therefore, we must be courageous in the midst of a world which can be hostile to faith. Therefore, we must be courageous in a world which is so often moved by sight and not by faith.
We must be courageous and not fall into the lie that we cannot follow after God and strive for Heaven because we are not good enough, holy enough, smart enough, pure enough, or whatever the excuse may be. We must realize that like the parable found in our Gospel that from the smallest of seeds springs forth “the largest of plants and puts forth large branches.”
If we are to sprout these branches we must come to embrace God who loves us dearly and become accepting of the gift of His grace. Grace which is poured out to us in so many ways, but especially within the Sacraments. To fathom that from the Eucharist we receive Christ Himself into our life. If we invite such a wondrous gift as Christ into our life then why would we not be courageous in the midst of the adversity of everyday life?
