SAVING SOULS FOR ETERNAL HAPPINESS

 

If we love God then we should be intent upon knowing what God loves and collaborating with God in His plan and destiny of this world.  What God loves and desires most in the world that He created from an abundance of His love is the SALVATION OF IMMORTAL SOULS.

One soul is worthy more than the whole created universe. In fact, God created all in the natural and material world as a means by which we can arrive at heaven. If you like, all of creation should be a ladder or stepping stone to heaven, and never a stumbling block.

This being the clear truth about God and His great desire to save souls, what way can we  collaborate with God in  this awesome enterprise, this sublime mission, this most noble of all activities: the salvation of immortal souls?

1.    HOLINESS.  Jesus said: “Be holy as your heavenly Father is holy.” Also, one of the Beatitudes is: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (holiness) they will be satisfied.”  Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta expressed it as such” “Holiness is not the privilege of the few but the duty of all.” The devil said that if there were three more of the Cure of Ars then his kingdom would be destroyed.” Unfortunately evil can attract, lure, appeal and seduce even noble and holy individuals. However, holiness is like a magnet that attracts.  St. Pope John Paul II, the Cure of Ars, St. Anthony, St. Thomas Aquinas, and St. John Bosco were saints and they attracted others to follow them so that they could bring them to Jesus who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Beg Jesus right now from the depths of your heart for this one special and all-important grace: “Lord, make me a saint.” Saint Dominic Savio upon meeting Saint John Bosco said this:  “You are the tailor and I am the cloth; make me a saint.”  Let us beg the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier to help us to become the saint that God has designed for us for all eternity.  The hard truth is this: we are all called to become saints. The proof is double:  Jesus commanded it; and only the saints are in heaven (Of course with the faithful angels). In a real sense, the greatest tragedy on earth is to fail in God’s mission for us and not become the saint that God has called us to be.  One of the most important Documents in the Church in the Modern world is a Dogmatic Constitution with the title “Lumen Gentium” (Light for the People). This is considered by many the greatest of all of the Documents of the Second Vatican Council. In the very heart of this Document, Chapter V, the title of this Chapter is nothing less than “The universal call to holiness.” All are called to grow daily in holiness; all are called to become saints. There is too much mediocrity, tepidity, lukewarmness in the Church today. The world must witness men and women that are on fire for the love of God.  Jesus Himself said:  “I have come to cast fire on the earth and I am not at peace until that fire be enkindled.”  Saint Ignatius’ last words to the great Apostle to the Indies, Saint Francis Xavier were:  “Go set all on fire.”

2.    SHORT-CUT TO HOLINESS.  There are many means, methods, and tools that can be utilized to construct an edifice of holiness in our person. However, let us cut to the quick and give the quickest and the most efficacious means. The Sunday after Trinity Sunday the Church celebrates the Solemnity of CORPUS CHRISTI—that is to say the Solemnity of the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. One of the primary purposes of this sublime Liturgical Solemnity is to foster within our hearts a strong faith, ardent love and burning passion to appreciate the Eucharistic Lord more than we ever have in our life. This is manifested most concretely by having an insatiable hunger and thirst for Holy Mass and to receive the Eucharistic Lord into the deepest recesses of our souls.   The Psalmist reminds us in these poetic and mystical words: “As the deer yearns for the running streams so my soul longs for you O Lord my God.”  I do not believe that it would be far-fetched, much less heretical to offer a Eucharistic interpretation to the most prayed prayer in the world—the Our Father.  One of the petitions in the Our Father, also known as the Lord’s Prayer is:  “Gives us this day our daily bread…   Would it be wrong to assert and to challenge believing Catholics to have an ardent hunger for the daily bread of the Eucharist??? No doubt our body needs daily bread to be sustained. However our soul supersedes in light years the importance of the body. Jesus reminds us with these clear and cutting words:  “What would it profit a man if he were to gain the whole world and to lose his soul in the process?  What can a man give in exchange for his soul?”  By receiving the Holy Eucharist with lively faith, burning fervor (love) and frequency (on a daily basis) we are on the highway to holiness, the highway to heaven, and beyond the shadow of a doubt God will use as His companion, friend and collaborator to work ardently and strenuously for the salvation of immortal souls.  Therefore, why not right now look at your weekly schedule and your daily schedule and check out the daily Masses close to your home and decide to set aside a half an hour a day for daily Mass and for the reception of daily Holy Communion. You will never regret this decision and change in your life!!! Then after you have received Jesus with faith, devotion, fervor and passionate love in your heart in Holy Communion beg the Eucharistic Lord Jesus, who is the Holy of Holies to make you a saint. Beg the Lord through the intercession of Our Lady the Mother of God, the Mother of the Church, the Mother of the Eucharistic Savior to use you as an instrument to save an enormous harvest of souls. The harvest is rich and the laborers are few. Jesus is calling you right now to hearken to His wonderful but challenging call to work with Him in the salvation of immortal souls. Never forget: one immortal soul is worth more than the whole created universe! Jesus shed His precious Blood for the salvation of your soul and the souls of the entire universe!