Tag Archives: Heaven

The Book of Life and Treasure in Heaven – May 3, 2020

This pandemic shutdown is, if nothing else, a time for us to hit the “reset button” in our lives. As money and livelihoods are slipping away and diminishing, we remember that everything in this world is fleeting. As Ecclesiastes says, all is vanity! Our tenuous existence is a reminder that we need to keep our eyes on heaven — our true eternal home. This lockdown is an opportunity for us to focus more on the weightier things of life and eternity. 

Here is one idea to contemplate: Everything we do of value in the eyes of God gains us eternal merit, reward, and glory in heaven for all eternity. 

Each passing moment is a great opportunity for us, one of potentially eternal significance. From moment to moment, we have the ability to make deposits into our heavenly futures. Jesus urges as much, “lay up to yourselves treasures in heaven.” (Mt. 6:20) Many people work in the world to build up as much wealth as possible. We check endlessly the size and growth of our bank accounts and 401Ks. If this worldly wealth is here today and gone tomorrow, should we not work even more diligently for the wealth that endures forever? If we want to be greedy in this life, we should at least be greedy for the eternal things that matter most. 

How do we build up these treasures in heaven? Jesus gives one hint, by urging us to do our good deeds and prayers in secret: “But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” (Mt. 6:6) By doing it just for God, it is God who will repay us. And, God sees all.  

Each little action, word, deed, prayer, or sacrifice that we do in our mortal lives is recorded. Think of that. In each passing moment, God “time-stamps” an eternal recording of it. Each instant in time passes never to return again. However, we will see these time-stamped moments reviewed at our Last Judgment. They are the measure by which God will judge us. God calls the recorded actions of our lives the “Book of Life.” St. John gives testimony to this: “Also another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, by what they had done.”(Rev. 20:12) The Book of Life is like a balance sheet for our lives. Each bad deed and word is recorded as negative balance in the Book of Life, while each good deed, and prayer, and sacrifice as a profit.

Jesus speaks of these negative debts we will have to account for: “I tell you, on the Day of Judgment men will render account for every careless word they utter.” (Mt. 12:36) We will be held accountable for even a single careless word. That is a meticulous accounting! This should shock us to watch whatever we do at any given moment and not stumble, especially not carelessly taking the Lord’s name in vain. Moreover, mortal sin left on the balance sheet of our soul keeps us eternally in the red, in more senses than one, forever paying for that debt.  

If every careless word is recorded and accounted for, then, likewise, every good word, prayer, sacrifice and deed is also recorded, and rewarded. 

When we realize that everything we do has an eternal weight, it is a strong motivation to do what’s right and what’s good. It is a motivation to be holy. When you say a Rosary in the morning, realize that that time spent can never be taken away from you. It is now fixed forever in the Book of Life for you. If you pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy one afternoon, or fast one day, or contemplate the Stations of the Cross, or give alms to the needy, those too can never be taken away from your ledger recorded in the Book of Life. 

Salvation is more than the balance sheet of our deeds and “gaining points,” this is true, but it is a part of it. What we do matters! Of course, faith in Christ, humility, love, and the sacraments are essential. However, we can build up our treasures in heaven by our prayers, deeds, and sacrifices as recorded in the Book of Life. 

How can we know that God pays attention to us in such minute and particular detail? Jesus reveals this exquisitely detailed love of God for us that “even the hairs of your head are all numbered.” (Mt. 10:30) God loves us so much that each tiny individual hair on our head has a number! God notices every seemingly insignificant detail of our lives, more than we can ever imagine. If he has even catalogued the very hairs on our head, how much more does he notice all that we do out of love for him. God knows and appreciates every one of our intentions to please him while on our struggle to climb up the mountain of holiness.   

Our perfect motivation should always be to strive to do good out of love for God alone. Love of God is our focus. As fallen beings, however, we know that we are also driven, to some degree, by selfishness and reasons of rewards. Jesus does not dismiss this as a motivation for us, but rather, encourages us to build up this spiritual treasure. I take this as a real heavenly treasure, not of gold or such, of course, but rather, an unimaginable light, joy, and holiness reflecting the glory of God — a partaking in the Beatific Vision. This treasure is what St. Paul references: “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him.” (1 Cor. 2:9) Our treasure is a kind of wonderful surprise awaiting us, if we but try to do the will of the Lord in this life.

So, let’s get to work building up those heavenly treasures that will last forever! As Jesus exhorts us: “Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to render to every man according to his works.” (Rev. 22:12) 

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The 100th Anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima

This spring will mark 100 years since the Fatima apparitions, and an opportunity to reflect deeply again upon their message. The Angel of Peace appeared three times to the shepherd children, Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco, beginning in the spring of 1916 in Fatima, Portugal. These visitations prepared the way for the six apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima the following year. The message of Fatima may be lost sometimes in the mysterious and the spectacular: the apparitions; the “three secrets;” the “dancing of the sun.” Yet, the main entreaties from Heaven concerned our day-to-day earthly activities and how these will forge our eternal destiny. The everlasting consequence of unrepented mortal sin is Hell; knowing this, we should live our lives according to the laws of God, in obedience, purity and virtue. The central message of Fatima was an urgent plea to stay on the narrow path to Heaven.

Fatima calls us to conversion, and a daily turning away from sin. In order to convert the unrepentant, the Angel first taught the children the great value of intercessory prayer. Underscoring the importance of our intercession, the only thing the Virgin Mary requested at all six appearances was for us to pray the Rosary, every day. She told them that our prayers can help save souls, “Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners; for many souls go to hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and to pray for them.” It is not only intercessory prayer, but also our intercessory sacrifices and sufferings that are efficacious. By virtue of our Baptisms, we are all brought into the Body of Christ and partake in His priesthood, as part of the common priesthood of the faithful. Acting in our priestly role, we can offer ourselves up as “spiritual sacrifices” acceptable to God and in atonement for sins. (CCC 1141)

Further linking us to the Body of Christ, the Angel and the Virgin Mary said we should seek to console God through worthy reception and adoration of the Eucharist. While the idea of consoling an all-powerful God may seem counterintuitive, we are reminded by Pope Pius XI that “we can and ought to console that Most Sacred Heart,” which is continually wounded by our sins (Miserentissimus Redemptor, 13). In a similar way, the Angel offered the children holy Eucharist to make reparation for sins and to “console your God.” This was later echoed in Our Lady’s Eucharistic prayer: “O Most Holy Trinity, I adore You! My God, my God, I love You in the most Blessed Sacrament!” The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life (CCC 1324), and the Fatima apparitions remind us that worthily receiving Jesus in Communion has the grace to save our souls and console our God.

The Virgin Mary also asked us to make reparation through the “First Five Saturdays” devotion. Our Lady promised Sister Lucia, “to assist at the hour of death with the graces necessary for salvation” those who will practice this devotion of Confession, Eucharist, recitation of the Rosary, and meditation upon its mysteries. The Church rightly honors the Mother of God, because it was through her, and in consent of her freewill, let it be done to me, that the Savior was born into the world. (Lumen Gentium, VIII) This is what we proclaim in the words of the Rosary: the moment of the Incarnation of God. As Pope Paul VI issued in his 1967 Apostolic Exhortation, Signum Magnum, on the 50th anniversary of Fatima, it is fitting that we consecrate ourselves to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, as the spiritual Mother of the Church, for her mediatory role in the salvation of the world.

Now, on this 100th anniversary of Fatima, we are reminded again to contemplate its message and embrace its devotions. Although the Angel of Peace and Our Lady of Fatima appeared during the carnage of World War I, the divine messages are perhaps even more relevant today, in an age of nuclear weapons and renewed militancy across the globe, rampant atheism, materialism and loss of faith, a diminishing Church in the West, and a rapidly growing permissive society. As faithful disciples, we are called to be holy, and intercessors for each other. Fatima was a wake-up call. In it, Jesus’ last words from the Cross come alive “Behold, your mother.” (Jn. 19:27) In the midst of a passing world, we need to get right with eternal things: by penance, Confession, the Eucharist, prayer, especially the Rosary. Our Lady of Fatima renews this call again, to stay on the narrow path to Heaven.

 

 

 

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