Do I deserve Heaven?
A short reflection on "Do I deserve Heaven?"
> A lawyer/teacher of the law asks Jesus on how will I inherit eternal life?
> 1st reply by Jesus was " What is written in the law" or in short have you read the scriptures?
> 2nd reply " what do you read or how you interpret it?
> The teacher of the law gives the right answer i.e. Love God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and love your neighbor as yourself.
> Jesus compliments on the right answer and tells him to follow that.
> But the lawyer tries to justify who's the neighbor?
> And the parable begins.
> A man is stripped, beaten up and the robbers run away and left half dead
> A priest passes by but ignores him
> A Levite passes by and also ignores
> But a good Samaritan out of mercy reaches out to the man's aid.
> The Jesus questions, " who was the real neighbor to this man in this parable?"
> The lawyer replies, " the one who showed mercy".
> Jesus concluded, " Go and do likewise!"
Reflection:-
This episode is one of the practical manner in which an individual can inherit eternal life i.e. Heaven. In this modern generation, there are almost 8 different categories of Catholics around us:-
1) The WhatsApp forwarder of Word of God- only keeps sharing and sometimes not applying
2) The practical doer but influenced by the world not the scriptures
3) The Humanitarians- the ones who believe in Humanity and not religion but never shows in their actions the gestures of love
4) The Adventurers- who seek adventure in reading the Word of God and not interested in the original context
5) The confused God reliant- who totally depends on God and blames God if something goes wrong
6) The Sunday Catholics- who go for mass every Sunday, but once they reach home they are out of Grace
7) The unforgiver- The one who doesn't even care for their own family members living under the same roof
8) The real friend of Jesus- who reads, meditates, follows, accepts all things whether positive or negative in life as gift or penance
The above categories could increase also, but the point to make is, we all are one body no matter what role we play. But our destinations may be Heaven, hell or purgatory based on the life we live on Earth.
If you see the image you will notice a cross and on the vertical beam there's "God" written and on the horizontal beam "Neighbor" is written. That is vertical worship and horizontal service. Sometimes our vertical worship maybe be fantastic but horizontal service cramped up. Sometimes it might be just the opposite. Sometimes there might be no love for God and Neighbor whilst there might be a few who genuinely love both God and Neighbor. We come across so many cases of a brother not talking to his brother, a sister not talking to his brother, a mother-in-law not in good terms with daughter-in-law or vice versa, , a neighbor not talking to another neighbor, etc etc. If you think about this matter deeply, by keeping so much grudge where are we heading with our lives? Heaven or Hell? This is also irrespective whether you are the best preacher, or a person who goes for retreats, prayer meetings, conventions, etc etc., a person who even exclaim Praise the Lord!! Alleluia!! but if you hold grudge then what's the whole point in that. You can enjoy rave parties, booze-up and enjoy your life and go rocking to hell!
We all have one life and we want to make the best out it. In our quest of finding true happiness we need to go to our roots i.e. read and study the Word of God, and believe me you will never be dismayed. Keep aside your pride, it won't lead you to anywhere great but to destruction. Money cannot buy you happiness but a loving family hanging out together will. With unforgiveness you will destroy your own health. With the use of foul language you will say no to being a child of God.
The end part of the parable is so beautiful where Jesus asks the lawyer, "who was the neighbor to the man?". He answered, "The one who showed him mercy." How wonderful our lives will be if we forgive people who hurt us rather than retaliating. By that being said, I urge you to also bring forth the things that hurt you by that person. Open up and don't ever get eaten from within by what someone says to you and that's when you need the Holy Spirit who will give you the wisdom of what to speak so that you solve the matter in a good way.
This quotation from the Word of God will give you the encouragement.
Sirach 17,20-24.
To the penitent God provides a way back, he encourages those who are losing hope
and has chosen for them the lot of truth. Return to the LORD and give up sin, pray to him and make your offenses few.
Turn again to the Most High and away from sin, hate intensely what he loathes; and know the justice and judgments of God, stand firm in the way set before you, in prayer to the Most High God.
Who in the nether world can glorify the Most High in place of the living who offer their praise? Dwell no longer in the error of the ungodly, but offer your praise before death.
No more can the dead give praise than those who have never lived; they glorify the LORD who are alive and well.
How great the mercy of the LORD, his forgiveness of those who return to him!
Tonight pray to the Holy Spirit and make list of all those whom feel hard to forgive or those whom you have not yet forgiven. Ask help from the Lord with a repentant heart and he can do wonders which you cannot even dare imagine. Finally, make a thorough confess and tell the priest who are the ones you did not forgive and restore your relations. Once you do all these, the Lord who inspired me to write this article will bring me immense joy as my mission is to do the will of my Abba Father.
LOVE GOD AND LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR
LOVE GOD AND LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR
Praise God❤
Comments
Post a Comment