“WHOEVER SEEKS TO PRESERVE HIS LIFE WILL LOSE IT,BUT WHOEVER LOSES IT WILL SAVE IT.” LK 17:26-37
Humbly submit your will to God (thy Will be done) and consecrate yourself to the Sacred Heart of Jesus through Mary and Joseph.
Prayer Prompt before reading LK 17:26-37: Come, Holy Spirit, teach me how to pray, interpret the Scriptures for me so that I may know the Truth about who God the Father and God the Son are so that I may know who I am.
I think most of us are afraid to die, it’s part of being human. Peter Kreeft says, “We are more afraid to die to ourselves than we are to die in our bodies.” What he is talking about is killing our ego and allowing God to rule our lives. We are created for love. Love is willing the good of the other and doing something about it.
Total surrender to God is the most difficult decision we will ever make. It is necessary to enter the Kingdom. We cannot become a saint unless we allow Christ to rule our heart. This conversion is looking at things in a completely different way through a friendship with Jesus in prayer, reading the Bible, and journaling. Jesus is telling us that if we only seek to improve and preserve our own self-interests, glorify ourselves, or our bodies we are missing the point.
The point of this life God has given to us as a gift is to prepare our Spirits for eternal spiritual life. He gives us time to grow in wisdom and knowledge of Him, fall in love with Him, do His Will by loving others, then return to Him. This is what we are made for. This is holiness/sainthood.
We are the only creation that has a body so that we can bring forth new life and love with our bodies. Our body and souls are interwoven so that each loving deed you do with your body helps your soul get to heaven. I would like to share two saints who have taught us how to become saints through loving deeds.
First, one who wanted to be a missionary out in the world and take care of those in need but lived her short life in a convent, St. Therese of Lisieux. She struggled for a long time to understand how God wanted her to love. Finally, she learned that God wanted her to love in each “little way” or little act she did in her prayers and for those she lived with in her convent. Her story always reminds me to do each little act around the house and with my family with love. It is consoling when times get tough, dull, or boring.
Second, St. Mother Teresa spent most of her life with the poorest of the poor in Calcutta, India. As I was sitting in adoration reading her book it jumped right out at me, she says, “it is not how much we accomplish each day but how much love we put into each act that we do.” Jesus doesn’t have any World Series rings, Superbowl trophies, millions of dollars from acting in a blockbuster film, and He was not famous for being a great political leader.
Why do so many people 2,000 years later still follow Him? Why is He so “popular”? First, He is God. When you encounter God, you are moved. Most importantly, He taught us how to love and what love is. God’s love is the most powerful thing in the world! There is nothing that can destroy this love except not accepting it. “Love one another as I have loved you”. JN 13:34 “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” JN 15:13
Today’s challenge: Love, do good deeds, stop entertaining yourself to death and get up and do something for someone out of love while you still have a body.
Be a servant, be a saint today!
#Christian YODO (You Only Die Once; We will live again!)
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