Are you prepared for eternal life?

Good News Reflection
Monday of the Eighth Week of Ordinary Time
May 24, 2010
Today's Readings:
1 Peter 1:3-9
Ps 111:1-2, 5-6, 9, 10c
Mark 10:17-27
http://www.usccb.org/nab/052410.shtml
USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
http://ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/10_05_24.mp3
Are you prepared for eternal life?
Is the message in today's Gospel reading a commandment to get rid of our possessions? No. It's the same message we heard earlier in the Gospel when Jesus said: "If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off." Now Jesus puts it this way: "If your money causes you to sin, get rid of it by giving it to the poor."
The sin that Jesus is addressing is apathy, i.e., the lack of caring.
Jesus is responding to the question about how to receive eternal life. Since God is love, heaven is a place of love, and if we die with unrepented apathy, we cannot enter heaven. This is why God in his mercy, allows us to experience purgatory, which is the state of being purged of all unlovingness.
Notice that when Jesus answers the man's question, he names only the commandments that deal with loving others. In essence, he's asking: Which do you love more: your possessions or people? Let's look more closely at these commandments and put ourselves in that man's sandals.

"You shall not kill" – Am I harming others by saying no to their needs because I am not willing to be generous with my money or possessions?
"You shall not commit adultery" – Am I cheating on those who need my attention by working more hours than necessary for the sake of getting more money?
"You shall not steal" – Am I robbing others of justice by unfairly taking advantage of them to achieve the gains I want? (This includes reproducing copyrighted music and materials, and buying goods produced by slave labor conditions.)

"You shall not bear false witness" – Am I deceiving others by claiming to care about them while really focusing more on my needs, my desires, my financial goals, etc.?
"You shall not defraud" – Am I disguising myself as a loving person by saying all the right words and doing all the right things for the sake of manipulating others and securing my own comfortable lifestyle at the cost of another person’s comfort?
"Honor your father and your mother" – Am I ignoring the needs of my parents and others who have nurtured me by being too self-centered and unwilling to care for them in their old age?
For us, it's impossible to love at all times, but not for God. All things are possible with God. If we ask the Father for forgiveness and lean on Jesus and seek wisdom from the Holy Spirit, we become more loving. We become more heavenly.
For more of this, see my "Examination of Conscience based on the 10 Commandments":
http://wordbytes.org/SpirGrowth/10commandments/index.html
© 2010 by Terry A. Modica
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