Random Reflections

Mass Readings for 2.11.11 All Souls Day Wisdom of Solomon 3:1-9 Rom. 6:3-9 Mathew 25:31-46 Yesterday being ' All Saints Day ' the readings focused on what it takes to be a saint, their spiritual life as per the Sermon on the Mount and finally the reward that awaits them at the end of their earthly journey. Today being the ' All Souls Day ' the church in its wisdom turns its attention on God's expectations for the rest of the christians and the reward and punishment that awaits them depending on how they discharged their christian duties.First and foremost we have to love our God singlemindedly and with an undivided heart. Our strong devotion and love for God and His KIngdom values as manifested in our continuous spiritual efforts as recommended by the church will draw us closer and closer to Him and we thus obtain from God the necessary spiritual strength and graces to obey His second commandment of loving our neighbor just the way we love ourselves. Jesus summed it up in " Love one another as I ( Jesus ) have loved you." This means loving others for His sake even to the point where it begins to hurt us.This is what pleases God most as seen in the entire Bible.This means dying to self and rising with Christ. Our Final judgement will be based on how well we have loved God and internalised the salvation wrought in us by the passion, death and resurrection of Christ and how sincere we have been in serving the hidden Christ in others by generously sharing our time, energy and resources with the poor, needy and the lonely.Christian goodwill and service is derived fundamentally from our love of Christ in God. Salvation followed by works of mercy keep us in good standing with God.Only such righteous christians are welcome in heaven and the rest are consigned eternally to hell. Becoming a righteous Christian would involve a shedding of a whole lot of our ego, pride and selfishness.This is crucifying our sinful self with Christ.Sacrifice and true love means pain and this is the only way God has deigned to purify us in this life.Whatever purification remains to be done is taken care of in purgatory.Our prayers and works of charity help the souls of our loved ones in purgatory to secure an early release and reach heaven.This is the only way we are allowed to show our love to the poor souls in purgatory.It has been said that it is better to undergo the purification process in this world itself rather than in purgatory.The first reading makes a mention of such a purification process undergone by the righteous and those loved by God in this life itself which the ignorant mistakenly take it as a punishment from God.Today should remind us that our permanent home and destination is Heaven. God Bless.