Knowing that your destiny is eternal life with Christ, how do you live your life?

In Today’s readings, we can see one powerful theme. It is rare that one theme comes through so strongly in each of the readings, which means that the Church is telling us how important it is. Let me ask a question to highlight the theme: Knowing that your destiny is eternal life with Christ, how do you live your life today?

Now let me highlight this by looking at the gospel and the second reading.

Jesus preached, “The Kingdom of God is at Hand, Repent and Believe the Gospel.” as we see in the second line in Mark. We then see he calls the Apostles, Simon and John. Now let’s look at the words of St. Paul where in his letter to the Corinthians, he instructs his readers to live differently than everyone else.

time is running out.

From now on, let those having wives act as not having them,
those weeping as not weeping,
those rejoicing as not rejoicing,
those buying as not owning,
those using the world as not using it fully.
For the world in its present form is passing away. (1Cor 7:29-31 NAB)

The time difference between the Gospel reading and the words of Paul is interesting. The gospel took place about 25 years earlier, but was written about 14 years later. Therefore, in this forty year time span we see a consistent message. It is not just to repent, because that implies turn from sin. It is rather turn from sin and live completely differently than you did before. In other words, live with the understanding that you are on a pilgrimage to eternal life with Christ. The present life is not your permanent home and nothing here is yours to keep. Instead you are on a journey to your true eternal home which is a state of being we call Heaven.

If this is your goal, then your attitude in living here must reflect that goal. This is what both St. Paul and Mark’s gospel highlight.

Let me give an example of this. Now  before I begin, I need to tell you that I am not telling people not to ski. But distance runner Jim Ryun once explained that he never skied and never intended to ski. The reason why is that his goal was to be the greatest distance runner and he knew that if he damaged his leg skiing then he plans could be destroyed. So there are things in his life he never did. He denied himself these things for his greatest goals,  because to do them would undermine his ultimate goal.

This is what St. Paul is talking about in his instructions to live for the kingdom that Jesus proclaims in the Gospel.

It is not about living separate from the world, but to live in the world acting within the context of our priorities. Now it is living in a way that we show we are children of the light, because that is our ultimate desire.

Knowing that your destiny is eternal life with Christ, how do you live your life?

Let me give you an example?

One of the greatest realities of our time is that the more we are focused on the world, the more laws we must create and obey in order to prioritize the values of this world. However, the more people in a society are focused on eternal life, the more their priorities are in that vein and the less there is a need for law to guide them.

Let me give you an example. There is a law that says: “Do not steal.” And if I want to live peaceably with what I own and what I choose to gain then I will not risk losing all by stealing. However, when we see our focus is on eternal life with Christ, then the question is now whether or not to steal, but why would I even consider it? For I want nothing that would jeopardize my relationship with Christ and my priority to be with him for ever. So I live in this world with different priorities. Indeed, I may not be focused on taking other things from others, but instead giving things to others that they may have a better life. This is something the thief and even  the worldly who need this law but do not steal would not understand. You always hear the story of the taxi driver who finds thousands of dollars and gives it back to the owner and people ask him why he would do that. It is because his focus is not on getting all he can, but on being what God calls us to be.

Or let me give you a another more contemporary example. Denver lost in last week’s playoffs and so Tim Tebow did not lead his Broncos to defeat the Patriots, but for Tebow his role also allowed him to do something drastically different. He used his position to bring disadvantaged usually handicapped people to his games for free. He went beyond being just the best player he could win or lose, but his faith allowed him to do things that went more than the extra mile.

This is what Paul is teaching the Corinthians based on Jesus’ message, “The Kingdom of God is at hand.”

It is to live the world differently than others because our priorities are different.

Ski, but ski with the understanding that it is a gift from God and enjoy all his gifts in a way that keeps you on track for eternal life.

Allow yourself to be formed into a mind and heart that is formed by Him in relationship to Him within the context of assistance from Mary our Mother.

This means look at life and see what your priorities are and how they are affecting your decisions. Then live your life in a way that also teaches others about those priorities.

Let me give you another example. If we live our life well, we are to use things and love people, not the other way around.

We are to become people of love and to be a loving community that changes peoples hearts to Christ by that love that we experience in our relationship with Christ and share with others.

Many cities have a real history of drug abuse and one thing I wish I could communicate to anyone considering using any drug, is that there are people who truly love them and their hearts would be broken to learn they died of an overdose. Yet, is this not our message and is this not our transforming message to others, to know the love of Christ and to communicate that to others in a way that they meet and are transformed by the same Christ.

This means that our priority is to live as people connected to the kingdom of God in a way that radically differs from those who do not understand what we do here and to do it in a transformational way.

This means we all need to look at our priorities and to live the gospel well. So again I ask you:

Knowing that your destiny is eternal life with Christ, how do you live your life?

God Bless You,

Fr. Robert J Carr

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