January 04, 2004
What is our real goal?
I find a lot of confusion surrounding what we should personally work towards on earth if we expect to get to heaven. Not everyone is called to the same specific mission, but we are called to the same general mission. The simple answer is: become a Saint. This isn’t the general sense of “saint” as a follower of God. It’s more than that: we must advance to “the fullness of Christian life and the perfection of charity” (Lumen gentium). This is our goal if we hope for heaven.
So how do we get there? Ultimately, we must subvert our will to God’s. We must choose to do what God wants, even if it isn’t convenient or what we want. It’s the ultimate in selflessness – and the opposite of what our culture pushes us towards. You would prefer to practice contraception and “enjoy” life with your spouse for a few years? Too bad. Subvert your will to God’s and stay away from contraception. This is an extreme example, but this must be done in every aspect of our lives. Our needs and wants are a far second to the acts that God calls us to. In every aspect of our lives (work, home, school), we should choose to live with integrity and to do what we know God would want (what would Jesus do?). It sounds simple, but practically achieving it is difficult – we’re too selfish in many ways, which causes the problem.
This is one benefit of reading about the Saints before us is that we get practical examples of how they lived out this mission. Many of them did great things, but this isn’t necessary (see St. Therese for example). We are simply required to perfect charity and advance to the fullness of Christian life.
God bless,
Jay
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to tell somebody that Jesus loves them and He died for every one of their sins and all the disease in the world and He wants an intimate relationship with them. our goal is to the direct people toward the Kingdom of Heaven, and to reap the blessings of peace in our lives by knowing that we have changed someones life for eternity. our goal is to be hearers and do-ers of the Word of God. our goal is to have no other gods before Him and to love each other as we would love ourselves.
Posted by: paul baccus at January 6, 2004 12:23 PMI may be splitting hairs here, but nowhere that I know of in Scripture nor in the Word of God as passed down through the Apostles and their successors did God instruct us as part of our duty to "reap the blessings of peace". If by that statement you meant to imply that we are by His design the benefactors of such blessings IF AND ONLY IF they are according to His eternal and unified will, then I agree with you. If, however, you are implying that by cooperating with the Holy Spirit in directing our lives towards the very will of God that we are entitled to blessings of any kind, including those of peace, then I must disagree completely. The Christian life is the way of the Cross first and foremost, not one of worldly wealth, happiness and peace. To take up the Cross is to take the hardships and strife along with the many blessings.
Pax,
savrx
My brother if you find peace in the word and word is god how then will you not have peace. Of course the word say that we will go through pains and sufferings but we find peace because we know who our father is. When Christ died on the cross he had burdens but he also had peace and we are to follow his will and that means having peace, peace enough to ask for forgiveness of those who were preuscuting him. The only way that we can see Gods will is through peace and thats the way we hace to live. I have seen to many things to not no about the peace of God and this is to everone who limts the word of God there is none!
family,
the Apostle Paul and David are scholars at knowing about having peace in the midst of very trying times. read about them. what i said was reap the blessings of peace by knowing, knowing that you help someone come to Christ. what greater work can you do on earth than tell anybody about Jesus? what do you consider peace? peace in your soul creates the atmosphere for how you view the world around you and that my friend starts on the inside. the love of God is peace, the love of Jesus is peace and the fruit of the Holy Spirit is peace. so how come we can't have peace? especially with the state of the world. if Jesus comes right now, we're all gone anyway so why worry about what you can't fix and do God's work anyway!
I never said we couldn't have peace. Did you read my statement? I said we could only have peace if it was the will of God, for it through Him that peace IS.
Posted by: savrx at January 6, 2004 04:46 PMWHAT IS PEACE? Tell me when will peace come. or even how do peace come about. So will there every be peace.
Posted by: HOLLOWAY at January 6, 2004 06:01 PMI personally like to see others also saying that we are called to be saints. That´s something we were talking about a bit a while back, and the common misunderstanding, misconception of what is a saint. And I think that really does have something to do with peace. Christ tells us to be like him. What this world needs are more saints, who live every day lives, finding peace inside themselves, and onpassing it to others.
Posted by: jesus gil at January 6, 2004 06:40 PM
