Are you ready to meet the Lord any day?

PREPARING FOR YOUR LAST DAY ON EARTH

Lk. 12:32-48

A husband and wife retired at the age of 65.  They set themselves a very strict regime for keeping fit.  They joined a gym, jogged daily for 30 minutes, went swimming once a week and kept to a very strict diet.  Everyone remarked how fit and well they looked.  They lived another 30 years and both died at the age of 95.  When they got to Heaven they were so overwhelmed and happy and said, “Why did we put our bodies to such hardship?  If we had been like other couples and taken life easy we may have come to Heaven ten years earlier.  Just think about what we have missed!”

Today’s Gospel is a warning from Jesus to be prepared for Heaven.  My greatest desire is to get to Heaven.  Now that I have reached the age of 83 I think more and more of how much longer I shall live.  All my brothers and sisters have outlived our parents who both died at the age of 68.  My prayer is that on the day that He calls me I may hear from Him the words He spoke to the repentant thief, “I promise you this day you will be with Me in Paradise.”  They will be the sweetest words to my ears.  Of course, even better than hearing I had won £64 million on the European Lottery.

I trust that getting to Heaven is your greatest desire too.  I have always regarded monthly Confession as our ticket to Heaven.  We are all sinners and we constantly fall on our journey to Heaven.  God in His goodness has given us this wonderful Sacrament to help pick ourselves up and continue on our journey to Heaven.  We are fools if we do not avail ourselves of this God-given help.  If we have been true to our monthly Confessions, I can’t see God our Father turning us away from His Heavenly home.  I feel He will say, “Yes, you did sin.  There were times when you let Me and others down, but your heart was in the right place.  You wanted to please Me and live in harmony with others and longed to live in My Home.  Come and enjoy the happiness of Heaven.”  So always remember that your monthly Confession is your ticket to Heaven.

I feel sorry for those Catholic parents whose children have lapsed from the faith.  They worry about their eternal salvation.  They keep wondering if they will ever get to Heaven?  I know if I was a parent that would be my greatest worry and heartache.  I would think, with God’s grace, I hope to reach Heaven and I want my children to be with me?  How can I be happy forever in Heaven if they are not with me?  These parents often ask, “Where did I go wrong?”  If you have done your best you must not reproach yourself.  I’m sure our heavenly Father would say to these parents, “Leave the worrying to Me.  I am their parent, too. They are My children and I want them to live with Me even more than you do.  Just keep praying earnestly for them and loving them.  Leave them in My capable hands and care.  You have to trust in the power of prayer and that one day they will realise the opportunities they have missed and hope that there will be a conversion.”   Mary is our mother and she knows your heartache. She too wants all her children to be with her in Heaven.  Place the future of your children in her care.  You chose a patron saint for your child, beg and beseech that saint to look after your child. No doubt you taught your child to pray to his or her Guardian Angel.  Now you must pray to their Guardian Angels for their protection.  Some saints maintain that the prayers of the Holy Souls are more powerful than those of the saints.  If that is true, pray for their release and tell them not to forget your children.  Have a Mass occasionally said for their conversion.  Use every means in your power to get them back to the Lord.

God has allocated work for us each day.  Just aim to do that work, no more, no less.  Live each day as though it were your last and you will make it the best day you have ever lived.  Then you will be prepared to meet the Lord.  I’m sure if people knew this day was the last day of their life on earth they would go to Mass and receive Holy Communion.  Wouldn’t it be a wonderful thing if we did our level best to try to get to Mass as often as we can?  I think those who go to Mass daily, or as often as they can, are the special friends of Jesus.  How can He not invite you into His Father’s Kingdom?

Here is a prayer of St. Thomas Aquinas which I say every day and you may like to say it too.  This prayer beautifully sums up all that I have been trying to say in this homily.  “Bestow upon me, O Lord, my God, an understanding that knows Thee, wisdom in finding Thee, a way of life that is pleasing to Thee, perseverance that faithfully waits for Thee, and confidence that I shall embrace Thee at last.” 

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