PREPARATION FOR HEAVEN

One of my students asked me "Father, bakit po kailangan mamatay?" Four of his relatives died one after the other. I understood he was in grief. After consoling him for his loss, I proceeded in answering his inquiry "We have to die in this world for us to go back home to God; to heaven where our true citizenship is (Phil 3:20)." Death is not an end but only a transit for us to continue to live in a new chapter in our eternal home. We have begun to live eternally when we received it in our baptism. However, the earth is not our ultimate destiny. Heaven is. And so, one day we are all going to die. But to where shall we continue living our eternal life very much depends on the life we have lived here on earth. After all, life here on earth is a preparation for the next chapter of our eternal life. Will you transit towards heaven or hell?   

In the gospel (Lk 16:19-31), we heard the story of Lazarus and the rich man, how the rich man treated Lazarus not as a brother but just like a dog that feeds from the scrap that falls from his table. The sufferings of Lazarus here on earth was rewarded with the prize of heaven; of being in the presence of Abraham where the hope in his faith which he held dear finally saw fulfillment; true salvation; isang tunay na maginhawang buhay. The rich man who enjoyed his material possessions for himself here on earth to the neglect of his needy neighbor met the punishment of his life; damnation in hell. Probably, he thought his comfortable life here on earth was the end; that life is just about this world. But he was wrong. There is an end in the life here on earth. Judgment awaits us at the end of the earthly chapter of our life which would determine where we shall continue our eternal life; either heaven or hell.

I remember once we were traveling for community integration. Along our trip, we pass by a restaurant to have lunch. It was a beautiful place with floating cottages by the lake teeming with colorful fish. Local singers entertained us. The local delicacies they served us were a delight to our palates. Without us noticing it, it had been two hours passed the hour of noon and one of our brothers had to remind us of our schedule. As the stop we made distracted us, we have been delayed in arriving at our destination.

Life here on earth is only a stop in the journey we make back to God; back to our true home. This stop may distract us and entertain us so much that we may think this has become our final stop, our final destiny. Worse is, this stop can alter our life's itinerary; can change the course of our life's ultimate end. The prophet Amos (Amos 6:1A, 4-7) reminds us not to be complacent with the comforts afforded to us by this world and not even lift a finger to alleviate the suffering of our neighbor. God entrusted to us the resources of this world for us to use them in making our way back to Him. We can effectively do so by using them in attending to the needs of our needy neighbor. And so, as we journey here on earth, we are not to miss our definitive goal by focusing too much on the side trips we make here with the junks that it offers us. The stops and side trips we make in life should all gear us towards that ultimate end we all desire. We are not to be distracted by the allurements of this world. Greater Treasure, beyond all telling, awaits us to the next chapter of our life, if and only we remain focused and prepare well for it.

Life on earth is our grand preparation for heaven. If we do not live a life fit for heaven here on earth, we cannot expect that in the end of our earthly life, we shall be rewarded to continue life in heaven. I remember a pious story on what it is like to be in heaven and hell. According to the parable of long spoons, life in heaven and hell can be likened to a group of people who have been served a bowl of delicious soup. They were given spoons with very long handles, as long as the height of each member. In hell, the people were in a constant struggle to feed themselves. When one is about to take a sip of the soup after much struggle of scooping it from the bowl and bringing it closer to his mouth, another would prevent him, so that he would not get even from others. And so in hell, no one would partake of that delicious soup with those spoons with long handles. In heaven, however, they use the spoons with long handles to feed not themselves but the persons across them. In heaven, everyone partakes of the soup through the help of everyone. Hell is a place for the greedy and those who thought only about themselves here on earth. Heaven is for those who share and feed others here on earth. Earth is the place where we can practice either to be in heaven or hell. It is by seeing our life here on earth as a preparation and anticipation of life in heaven that we can heed St. Paul's admonition (Tm 6:11-16) to pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness, compete well for the faith, and lay hold of eternal life, to which we were called when we were baptized. So that when judgment time comes, the King of kings and Lord of lords would welcome us to the entrance of heaven.

Do we help those who are in need, that we may be prepared for a life of endless generosity in heaven?

Have we grown complacent and distracted by worldly allurements, so much so that we miss our final destiny?

As we live our life here on earth, be reminded of heaven as our ultimate life-goal, lest we might regret forgetting it in the end. Nasa huli ang pagsisisi!

Let us prepare for life in Heaven through life of generosity here on earth.

BETTER THAN YESTERDAY

Have you seen a ghost?

A ghost is defined as an apparition of a dead person which is believed to appear or become manifest to someone alive. There are varied reasons why a dead person returns from his grave: unfinished business, restlessness due to unattained justice for his case, etc. And the living are afraid of ghosts in as much as they (ghosts) do not belong to this realm. The images of people from the past deeply affect others. They bring back memories that the living would rather not recall. They would remind the living about bad experiences they had. Others simply hate the experience of ghosting: nagpakita lang. Thank God, we Catholics do not believe in ghost (in this sense), more so in the practice of ghosting.   

In the gospel (Lk 9:7-9), Herod heard about a ghost from his past. He just heard about Jesus. He did not yet see Him but he was moved to anxiety. He was greatly perplexed because some were saying, “John has been raised from the dead”; others were saying, “Elijah has appeared”; still others, “One of the ancient prophets has arisen.” A ghost from his past haunted him. But far from the natural reaction of people to a ghost or an experience of ghosting, Herod was anxious to see Jesus; to have a glimpse of that "Ghost." What could be Herod's reason for desiring to see Jesus? Did he want to frighten himself? Did he want simply to satisfy his curiosity; to see for himself if John the Baptist whom he beheaded truly rose from the dead? Or perhaps, Herod wanted to make peace with his past. Susan Gales once said: “Sometimes you just have to make peace with your past to keep your future from becoming a constant battle.” Since the murder of John the Baptist, the days of Herod must have been dreadful and spent sleepless nights thinking about what he had done. His conscience must have disturbed him for the terrible deed he had committed in the past. With the supposed reappearance of John the Baptist, Herod had an opportunity to make peace with his past.

We all have our past that greatly affects our present, either positively or negatively. To those positive experiences we had, we are to cherish them. To those that haunt us; to the ghosts from the past that hamper us from living the present and chartering a future, we are to make peace with them so that they will neither disturb us in the present nor the future. How can we make peace with them? There is no other way but to see them face-to-face and accept them as a part of us instead of denying them. Only when we accept our past and befriend it, however ugly it may be, we can draw new meaning from it; we can begin to see and understand them from a new vantage point.             

Have you seen a ghost from your past? Make peace with them, that they may truly rest in peace, and you may continue your journey in peace, with a clear conscience, with your eyes set onto the future the Lord offers to you.  

The good news is, even in our past, the Lord is there ready to accompany us; giving us a chance to make ourselves better than yesterday!

BUILDING GOD'S HOUSE, BUILDING JESUS' FAMILY

Today, the world is connected more than ever. With technology at hand, one can easily communicate and transact with people from different points of the globe. Through various social media of communication, one can establish "friendship" and "follow" other people. Some would even have five thousand "friends," or millions of "followers." But how much do you know these friends and followers? As we connect to more and more people, the quality of our friendship is watered down. It is reduced to the number of likes, and hearts. In our desire for quantity of friendship, the quality is sacrificed. How many of us know, for real, the people we meet in the digital continent, beyond their post, through the message and in between the photos they share? How many of us established genuine friendship? We may have been connected by technology today, but an emerging reality is that we have become more and more isolated from reality and have been satisfied with incomplete friendships which we might as well call fake connections.      

In the Gospel (Lk 8: 19-21), redefines the relationship he has with persons whom he calls His family. Blood relations often define family. In an accommodated and extended way, friends can also be called families. Jesus, however, presents another way of defining familial relation: "My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it." Family is not anymore a matter of consanguinity and familiarity, but a matter of obedience to the Father: of heeding God's call for repentance, holiness, etc.; of following the instructions of His Son through whom He had spoken to us. It is this obedience to God that would unite us into establishing an authentic friendship. It makes us a family. As we act upon the Word of God and fulfill His will, real joy emanates from us for it brings to fulfillment our very purpose as children of God, obedient to their Father. 

The Jews and the Persians (Ezra 6:7-8 12B 14-20) though may differ from their ethnicity and religion, but were united as one in building the house of God. The completion of such a common project brought joy to them. And probably, they celebrated not only when the house of God was completed, but also as they build it; as they pass one brick to one another; as their unity brought their two communities into one and was able to build the house of God where He truly dwelled among them.

Today, how can we build the House of God? How can we establish God's presence in our midst even in the digital continent? How can we establish genuine friendships and families? We are already connected. We might have missed to include one Person in our family: God.

PRAISE TO THE DISHONEST STEWARD

We are disgusted by matapobres; those who kill the poor; those who consider other people as insignificant. Even the Lord condemns them and their deeds as He said through the Prophet Amos: Never will I forget a thing they have done! (Amos 8:4-7), referring to the misdeeds of people who trample upon the needy and destroy the poor of the land. And they kill the poor people through their dishonesty in doing business with them; in deceiving them just so they may gain more for themselves. They cheat the poor and others just so they may gain more money, more prestige, more honor in the eyes of this world; to live a comfortable life. But they are deceived, for none of these worldly riches matter in the end. After they cheated and did dishonesties, they may live in beautiful houses, ride luxurious vehicles, but they are still unhappy; they are poorer than the poor ones they may have outsmarted. Their dismal treatment of the poor negates their desire to live a good life which could only be achieved through honesty and generosity especially to the little ones who are precious in the eyes of God.

How shall we deal then with the poor, given the temptation to be rich in this world? The resources and talents we have are gifts entrusted to us by the Lord as their stewards. They are gifts entrusted to us to be managed, to grow and be shared with others. In Filipino, we call our properties ari-arian. The repetition of the root word ari means that they do not belong to us for real as in the case of bahay-bahayan, lutu-lutuan, and palayok-palayukan. We are simply stewards of the ari-arian entrusted to us by the Lord. As stewards, the Lord expects us to develop and use these properties, not for the sake of increasing their values in themselves, but so that we may please the real Owner of these properties; that we may please the Lord, as we become good overseers of His goods. Our ari-arian are not ends in themselves but only means for us to return and please the Lord. The best way to handle the gifts the Lord entrusted to us is by sharing them to others, most especially to those who are in need. They are not ours to keep, but entrusted to us to give to others.      

In the Gospel (Lk 16:1-13), we heard of the story of a steward whose relationship with his master fell apart for putting into waste the properties entrusted to him by his master. He was asked to prepare an accounting of his master's properties. Upon realizing his wrong deeds, the steward looked for a way to save himself from an impending disaster of his life; of living a miser's life should he be removed from being a steward and fall from the grace of his master. He used the properties that remained under his management and showed generosity to the debtors of his master by writing off portions of the debts. The steward hoped that later these debtors might return such favor. He rectified the mistakes he had committed in the past to secure his future.

On one hand, one may judge the steward of being dishonest to his master, not just once (when he squandered his master's properties) but twice (when he wrote off portions of debts from his master's account). But on the other hand, one cannot miss the generosity he showed to the poor debtors, and determination to secure a good future. And to add to the confusion of this scenario, the master even praised the steward for doing so. To understand this gospel passage it is important to note that this passage comes after the three parables of lost sheep, the lost coin and of the prodigal son. These parables too showed ways that are beyond human logic: Why would a shepherd leave the ninety-nine sheep in exchange for one lost sheep? Why would a lady throw a party when she finds one lost coin? Why would a father welcome a prodigal son after he squandered his inheritance? And so why would a master praise a dishonest steward? Illogical? For us men, yes! For God, no! For God, our master, sees the generosity of the steward to the poor debtors, and his concern to swiftly rectify his mistake and secure a good future (his salvation). And for that realization, and generosity, the steward won back the trust of his master. The dishonest steward was praised not because of his dishonesty (for the Lord abhors such misdeed) but because of his determination to secure his future by correcting his past mistakes through acts of generosity.

Despite our shortcomings, in the end, we will never be wrong in being generous, especially to the poor, as our heavenly Father is generous to us. We will never be wrong in prioritizing and doing everything just so we may be saved from damnation; from a bleak future. Generosity to others is the ultimate standard through which we will be judged if we have become good and faithful stewards of the ari-arian the Lord entrusted to us.

The good news is, the Lord allows us to rectify our mistakes, just as the master gave his steward a chance to be generous to the poor. Our dishonesty and sinfulness are not enough reasons for God to condemn us in eternal damnation, as God wills that everyone be saved (1 Tm 2:1-8). St. John Chrysostom said “Let no one mourn that he has fallen again and again: for forgiveness has risen from the grave!” He is a generous God after all, who gives us the opportunity to be His good stewards. That is if we choose to serve God alone, rather than worldly mammon; that is if we choose to rectify our mistakes.

Will you choose to be dishonest and gain the riches of this world?

Will you rather be honest and generous, to secure the salvation that the Lord offers?

The choice is yours to make.