My Dear Brothers and Sisters,
In last Sunday’s Gospel from Luke, Jesus told us to avoid attachments to possessions and to target our lives on the Kingdom. Our passage today follows. Jesus was not literally urging His disciples to sell all their belongings and then give all the money to the poor, but we should keep the amount we need, not hoarding what could be used by someone else!
A recent study among 1,500 children under ten years of age asked them what were their goals in life and what did they want to achieve when they grow up. Surprisingly enough, the largest response was: “Being a celebrity.” The second-most-common response was: “Being good looking.” The third was: “Being rich.” And last and least among all the responses from the children to the question of what was the very best thing in the world was: “Being with God.”
How about us? What do we look for when pondering the “after-life?”
In our everyday experience, whatever we plan to do, we have to prepare in advance. If we plan to go on a trip, we have to make plans and reservations. Most of us – even if we are not very old – plan and save for retirement. However, the most important plans we have to make sooner or later are for our spiritual future: eternal life in the Kingdom of God!
In fact, Jesus calls us in today’s Gospel to charity and generosity. It helps us prepare spiritually by concentrating on the most important things! Elsewhere in scripture, Jesus said it is most important to remember what we save for, to focus our lives on that most important goal: “Preparing to live with God.”
My dearest friends, if we live our lives for God, preparing ourselves to spend our eternity with God, we fill our money bags with the heavenly treasures that do not wear out. Our future lives with God are definitely worth preparing for. May God help us to do so.
With love,
Fr. Thuong Hoai Nguyen, Pastor