Father Koch: Eternal Life is more than just showing up
August 17, 2022 at 1:29 p.m.
Although they can be complicated to understand, we do like guarantees and promises. We choose carefully what we purchase so that we can get the best deal possible. We have certain expectations of reciprocity in relationships, especially in our business dealings. There is a certain sense of quid pro quo with which we live our lives. Many of our dealings are casual and superficial. Too often we treat faith the same way. It can be easy to expect that all we have to do is have faith, to show up and perhaps volunteer on occasion, and we will get to heaven. That is not, however, the promise that Jesus offers his disciples.
At the same time there are those who hold that all that they need to do is to acknowledge Jesus as their Lord and Savior, and they are guaranteed salvation. Hence, all that is necessary is a response in faith. For some among those who hold to this position there is a guarantee that they are never again guilty of sin. There is no necessary connection between one’s moral life and one’s eternal salvation.
At its core we learn that salvation is a complicated process. Christians argue over the “many” and “all” of salvation. Is heaven populated with multitudes or are most people suffering the eternal torment of hell? Some Christians adhere to 144,000 saved, with the rest of us being damned. As it is estimated that some 117 billion homo-sapiens have ever inhabited the earth, that makes for a very small heaven and a very expansive hell. if so, few are to be saved, one must wonder why God would make the efforts, through the prophets of old, and especially through the Paschal Mystery, to demonstrate his compassion and mercy to the world.
Some Christians prefer to believe that all people are saved. In the end, face-to-face with God, all people respond to God’s merciful love, and enter the promised land. Once again, one would then wonder what was necessary in the paschal mystery. If we are all saved, why bother with a moral life, a spiritual life or a sacramental life.
We are left to walk what Jesus calls a narrow path. This sense of walking a narrow path in life is found in other world religious traditions as well. To find a narrow road, a middle road, seems to be the direction that Jesus is leading us.
The primacy of God in one’s life is an essential element on this eternal path. We need to recognize our total dependence on God and to make our life of faith preeminent. Participation in the life of faith is also necessary. We have the dispensation of the sacraments and the rites of the church that enable us to enter into the Mystery of God’s presence and his merciful justice. Yet, Jesus teaches us that even this is not quite enough.
We need to walk a path of mercy in our lives. Jesus reminds us that we are to “be merciful as our heavenly Father is merciful.” This places a heavy demand on us. This comes at the cost of abandoning our own sense of justice, vengeance, judgment, self-control, and idolatry, it demands that we step into the world of the other, walk in their shoes, and see the world through their eyes. Mercy overcomes judgment. Mercy triumphs over anger, vengeance, and hatred. Ultimately mercy leads us to love, a love which is far-reaching and unconditional. We see such great examples of this in the lives of so many, like the Saints: Teresa of Calcutta, Vincent de Paul, Elizabeth of Hungary and Damian DeVuester, among so many others. Yet, everyday ordinary men and women do extraordinary things in the name of Jesus Christ, most all without the fanfare and notoriety of the saints.
We are called to lead lives that mirror the life of Christ.
It is easier to think of ourselves as judges and jury and to reject others. In a sense we become a law unto ourselves while thinking we are acting in accordance with the teaching of Jesus and the law of the Church.
At the end it is seems not enough to say: I called upon your Name, received the Sacraments, went to Mass, memorized the Bible; rather we also say, I fed the poor, housed the homeless, took in the stranger, and led others to do the same.
Father Garry Koch is pastor of St. Benedict Parish, Holmdel.
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Although they can be complicated to understand, we do like guarantees and promises. We choose carefully what we purchase so that we can get the best deal possible. We have certain expectations of reciprocity in relationships, especially in our business dealings. There is a certain sense of quid pro quo with which we live our lives. Many of our dealings are casual and superficial. Too often we treat faith the same way. It can be easy to expect that all we have to do is have faith, to show up and perhaps volunteer on occasion, and we will get to heaven. That is not, however, the promise that Jesus offers his disciples.
At the same time there are those who hold that all that they need to do is to acknowledge Jesus as their Lord and Savior, and they are guaranteed salvation. Hence, all that is necessary is a response in faith. For some among those who hold to this position there is a guarantee that they are never again guilty of sin. There is no necessary connection between one’s moral life and one’s eternal salvation.
At its core we learn that salvation is a complicated process. Christians argue over the “many” and “all” of salvation. Is heaven populated with multitudes or are most people suffering the eternal torment of hell? Some Christians adhere to 144,000 saved, with the rest of us being damned. As it is estimated that some 117 billion homo-sapiens have ever inhabited the earth, that makes for a very small heaven and a very expansive hell. if so, few are to be saved, one must wonder why God would make the efforts, through the prophets of old, and especially through the Paschal Mystery, to demonstrate his compassion and mercy to the world.
Some Christians prefer to believe that all people are saved. In the end, face-to-face with God, all people respond to God’s merciful love, and enter the promised land. Once again, one would then wonder what was necessary in the paschal mystery. If we are all saved, why bother with a moral life, a spiritual life or a sacramental life.
We are left to walk what Jesus calls a narrow path. This sense of walking a narrow path in life is found in other world religious traditions as well. To find a narrow road, a middle road, seems to be the direction that Jesus is leading us.
The primacy of God in one’s life is an essential element on this eternal path. We need to recognize our total dependence on God and to make our life of faith preeminent. Participation in the life of faith is also necessary. We have the dispensation of the sacraments and the rites of the church that enable us to enter into the Mystery of God’s presence and his merciful justice. Yet, Jesus teaches us that even this is not quite enough.
We need to walk a path of mercy in our lives. Jesus reminds us that we are to “be merciful as our heavenly Father is merciful.” This places a heavy demand on us. This comes at the cost of abandoning our own sense of justice, vengeance, judgment, self-control, and idolatry, it demands that we step into the world of the other, walk in their shoes, and see the world through their eyes. Mercy overcomes judgment. Mercy triumphs over anger, vengeance, and hatred. Ultimately mercy leads us to love, a love which is far-reaching and unconditional. We see such great examples of this in the lives of so many, like the Saints: Teresa of Calcutta, Vincent de Paul, Elizabeth of Hungary and Damian DeVuester, among so many others. Yet, everyday ordinary men and women do extraordinary things in the name of Jesus Christ, most all without the fanfare and notoriety of the saints.
We are called to lead lives that mirror the life of Christ.
It is easier to think of ourselves as judges and jury and to reject others. In a sense we become a law unto ourselves while thinking we are acting in accordance with the teaching of Jesus and the law of the Church.
At the end it is seems not enough to say: I called upon your Name, received the Sacraments, went to Mass, memorized the Bible; rather we also say, I fed the poor, housed the homeless, took in the stranger, and led others to do the same.
Father Garry Koch is pastor of St. Benedict Parish, Holmdel.