Rootless and Branchless

“Lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven,
when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble,
and the day that is coming will set them on fire,
leaving them neither root nor branch,
says the LORD of hosts.”

Malachi 3:19

The Lord warns us that there will be those who will come into our lives portraying to be someone from Him but in reality is not. There will be instances when our senses will fail to detect that what we are experiencing is not from God. There will be times when what is evil will seem to be what is true, good, and beautiful. How will we know? How will we know what is truly from God and not just a trick of the Enemy? We need to train our bodies to seek what our souls truly need — the food that sustains us, and this training can only be done by prayer.

We cannot choose good and evil at the same time. We must make a decision to choose either good or evil and to follow either God or the Enemy. In this world those who choose good over evil and God over the Enemy will be persecuted and dismissed but that is no reason to do otherwise. We are told that evil and all that follows it will one day be eradicated, leaving neither root nor branch. But it is a battle that is continuous and dare I say, one that is increasingly fierce. Indifference is one of the major contributors to this losing battle. We have to remind ourselves that this battle is very real and that the Enemy mimics the Truth and tries to fool us constantly. But by training our ears and hearts to listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd, the tactics of the Enemy will have no hold of us. With prayer evil will be rootless and branchless.

Brothers and sisters, we must listen in the silence of our hearts to the Voice who calls us His beloved. We need to train our senses to discern what is from God and what only seems to be from God because at the end of time following and believing only what “seems” to be from God will not lead us to Paradise. Rather it will lead us only to a mirage that quickly disappears when the Enemy reveals himself. As we quickly approach the end of this liturgical year, may we choose God daily and offer to Him our hearts, our bodies, our being, because when we do, it is truly God who lives in us and when He does, we can never fail.

The Life to Come

“It is my choice to die at the hands of men
with the hope God gives of being raised up by him;
but for you, there will be no resurrection to life.”

2 Maccabees 7:14

During the final weeks in Ordinary Time, as we prepare to start a new year in the Church, we are given readings that shift our focus to what is above. We must be reminded that the time we spend here on earth is only temporary and that our true home, our eternal home is in heaven. Although that may be the case, what we do here on this earth, may determine the life that is to come.

Sometimes we can get so wrapped up in things of this world — the little things — that we forget and lose sight of what is most important. We must not allow the mundane get in the way of the eternal. In the Gospel, Jesus reminds us that Our God is the God of the living. Those who have died here on earth are really alive, perhaps even more fully alive than they were while here on earth. In the first preface for the dead that is often said during a funeral mass, we are told that for those who believe “life is changed not ended, and, when this earthly dwelling turns to dust, an eternal dwelling is made ready for them in heaven.”

That is our hope, brothers and sisters. For us who believe, when our earthly lives are finished, life will not have ended, but only changed. No longer will we be limited by the confines of this physical world and our physical bodies, but we will be fully alive, dwelling among the saints, in the house in which Our Lord promised He has prepared a room for us. The life that is to come should be what is our primary focus. We live not for this life, but for the changed life that is to come. Then, if we know what the life that is to come is — life with God in heaven — then all that we do and say here on earth ought to reflect that.

We are a people who have been called out of this world to be a people that is particularly God’s people. May we ask for the grace to always seek what is above and allow that blessed life that is to come to move us to do even better here on earth.

False Piety

“Jesus addressed this parable
to those who were convinced of their own righteousness
and despised everyone else.”

Luke 18:9

It can be a temptation for regular churchgoers to think perhaps we might be in some way better than those who only go to Church once in a while or never at all. This can be dangerous territory. Absolutely. Should we go to Church every Sunday? Absolutely. Is it good that we go to Church every Sunday? Does it make us any better? Not necessarily.

The answer lies in the intention that is within our heart. Why do we go to Church? Because we have to? Because it’s an obligation? What do I do at Church? Do I simply stand when others stand, sit when others sit, kneel when others kneel, and say the responses from memory? Our physical bodies may be in those pews, but where are our hearts?

In the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, Jesus discusses the concept of “self-righteousness” and the eternal consequences of that. Both went up to the Temple area to pray, but only one actually prayed, while the other boasted about himself. Although the Pharisee went to the Temple, his heart was not set on God, but rather on all of the good things he thinks he is doing. On the other hand, the tax collector in his humility and perhaps even in his shame, bows down his head and pleads for mercy to God. Both were in the same place, in the same sacred space, but only one for the right reason. God only heard the tax collector because only the tax collector was talking with Him from his heart. Who do we talk to when we pray?

Brothers and sisters, where are our hearts? Do we focus on what we have done and the many good things we may be doing or do we focus on the many good things God has done for us, through us, and in us? Prayer is not about talking at God, but rather talking with God. True piety requires humility and knowing that we are not perfect and are in need of God’s mercy. Let us take a good look at our hearts today and invite God inside, confident that He will hear us and have mercy on us.

“I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:14).