A Time of Blessing

I think we are in a time of great blessing, or at least of an opportunity for blessing.

In Matthew: 25, Jesus notes how he will judge those deserving heaven and those deserving hell in the final times. He says he will award the “kingdom prepared for them” to those who loved him through love of neighbor: “I was hungry and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger and you took me in; naked and you covered me; sick and you visited me; I was in prison and you came to me … Truly I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these, my least brethren, you did it to me.” And to those who did not love him in the persons of his brethren he will say: “Depart from me, accursed ones.” Pretty blunt.

The sentence which decides our eternal fate will be based on the love we had for Jesus Christ shown in the persons of our brethren, our love of our neighbor. Given the number of our neighbors now hungry, now without a home, without food or clothing, sick and without care, and the record numbers in prison, who could deny that today there is a record number of “least brethren” in whom the body of Christ exists? Is this not a time of great opportunity, therefore, with so many available for us to help, that we might therefore more readily gain merit toward our hearing of the words: “Come, you who ministered to me in these least of my brethren, and enter my kingdom.”

Heaven is literally calling to us. Do you hear, or are you focused on other things? Are you worried that you might lose your job, that you might not have enough money for food, for clothes, for your own “needs”? Please consider carefully: that your “needs” are not just your wants. How much do you really need, and does that need include a requirement to be prepared for every eventuality? Are you waiting until you become like the temple-goer, who gave – (in public for all to see) – of his excess, what he felt he did not “need”. Our Lord explained that this is not giving to your neighbor, this is giving all the leftovers you could not eat to the dog. Don’t think yourself somehow justified for doing this; read again our Lord’s words on the Justice he promises for those who “Love their neighbor” in this manner. Now is an opportunity for us to give, like the poor woman in the temple, who gave of her few cents, and then trusted in the Lord for her own POSSIBLE “needs”.

I remember a mug I saw for sale in a sewing goods store. On it were the words: “She who dies with the most material, wins.” Wins what, after she is dead? Wins what? All her saving of material in case she might need it would put her in a position to “win”. From a spiritual perspective, win what?

What are you seeking to win, my friend, with all your material savings? Win what?