Daily Retreat 09/09/08

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2008 Sep 9 Tue: Peter Claver, p, r, ms M
1 Cor 6: 1-11/ Ps 149: 1b-2. 3-4. 5-6a and 9b/ Lk 6: 12-19

From today’s readings:  “Do you not know that the unjust will not inherit the Kingdom of God?...  LORD loves His people, and He adorns the lowly with victory....   Jesus departed to the mountain to pray, and He spent the night in prayer to God....”

The "Off" List

In my years as a priest, one of the surprises that  I continue to come across is the ubiquitous and  entrenched presumption that practically everyone will go to Heaven and inherit everlasting life.

Now, certainly God desires all to share in His life, and He makes it possible for every single person to  attain salvation, but it must be recalled that God endows all His children with free will, and so no one is forced or hoodwinked into choosing to accept God's invitation to live their lives according to His plan.

 Paul explains point blank that "neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers...will inherit the Kingdom of God."  While the many specific vices cataloged here (1Cor. 6:9-10) and elsewhere in the Bible (e.g., Gal. 5:19-21, Eph. 5:5, Apoc. 22:15) are not to be taken as an exhaustive list of  all possible mortal sins, such lists do provide a sufficient sampling to alert everyone to the reality of this "off" list of those excluded from God's Kingdom.

Paul points out, of course, that it is possible to get off the "off" list by turning to Jesus for forgiveness and sanctification, but one shouldn't overlook the other real possibility of getting on the dreadful "off" list by turning away from Jesus when one lives in such sinfulness.  So if you are on the "off" list, there's nothing more important than getting off it TODAY by turning to Jesus  in confession with contrition!