Saturday, August 10, 2013

Still More Will Be Demanded

By Rev. Joe McCloskey, SJ
Your people awaited the salvation of the just and the destruction of their foes.  For when you punished our adversaries, in this you glorified us whom you had summoned.  Wisdom 18:7-8
Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen.   Hebrews 11:1
“Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.”  Luke 12:48c

Piety

Our piety is seen in our preparation for the coming of the Lord.  God comes to us in unexpected ways.  Our readiness for the coming of the Lord is the essence of our piety.  Our God of love gives us himself in each now moment of our lives.  Piety is how we accept the love of the Lord.  He does not force his love on us.  He gives us moment by moment the max of his love for us in the realty of our lives.  His love holds us in existence.  The only limit of God’s love for us is in how much of his love we welcome into our lives.  Naked we came into this world and naked we will go out with the one exception of the good we have done that is waiting for us as our credentials of heavenly citizenship.  Our claim to fame in heaven will be what we have done in the name of the Lord.

Study

Our faith is the realization of what we are hoping for.  We study the lives of the saints to discover what God is looking for in us.  Our faith is seen in our confidence in the good people that have gone before us that we want to follow.  The heroic of their lives is seen in the way they do the ordinary of their lives in a loving way.  They put their hearts and their souls into what they are doing for the Lord.  Our faith is put to the test in the difficult moments of our lives when we perhaps do not feel like doing the right thing and do it anyway because that is how we love the Lord for himself.  The good we do provides money bags for ourselves in the treasure that is waiting for us in heaven.

Action

We provide money bags for ourselves in heaven by the way we take care of the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the prisoners and the sick.  What we do for the least person in our lives is what we do for Christ.  Our lives reach a cosmic scope when we reach out to the least person of our lives in the name of Christ.  Love is the only limit on any action of our lives.  How much of ourselves we give to the Lord is measured by how much of ourselves we offer to those who need our help right now.  If we take care of the needs of this hour we give Christ who we are.


No comments: