St. Maria Goretti

Somewhere, some time, along the line, we learn that things that last longer, are better. We learned that durability and reliability are good things. I like to blame this on those Slow-Poke all-day suckers that a lot of us had as kids. Remember those? I don’t know if they make those any more or not. They were these very hard, caramel candies on a stick, that you suck on for days, seemingly, and never eat the whole thing. In fact, most kids dropped them in the dirt, or left them lying in the grass, or got spider webs on them, BEFORE they finished eating them. When I was in high school, I had a friend who was convinced that Mercedes Benz cars lasted forever. So he saved his money and eventually went out and bought this twenty-year-old Mercedes, for his first car. His Mercedes broke down even more often than my old Ford, and it cost a lot more to fix. And then there’s maybe the best example of something that last forever: Craftsman tools. A lot of guys swear by Craftsman tools, because they are guaranteed for life. So they may break, they may not last forever, but Sears will give you another one if it does break. Craftsman tools have a guaranteed longevity. Of course, the guarantee doesn’t count if your neighbor borrows them and doesn’t return them. The fact is that nothing of ours really lasts forever. Everything wears out. Our world is passing away. And this reminds us that we are passing away. We may have candy, and cars, and tools that last for a long, long time. But we don’t. And someday, we’re all going to leave it all behind.

You can tell that we are at the end of our liturgical year, can’t you? Today, Jesus is looking at the Temple in Jerusalem with a group of people. And they are admiring the beauty of the Temple: the art, the gold, and the gems. And Jesus comes along and reminds them that it is all going to be destroyed someday. It ends up that “someday” was a lot sooner than anybody expected, because about 40 years after Jesus said this, the Temple was destroyed. But what is going on here? You talk about a kill joy! Couldn’t Jesus just admit that the Temple was a beautiful place to pray? Well, you see, Jesus is trying to teach a lesson here. Everything is passing away, even the Temple! And Jesus is trying to teach us this because we forget this all the time. We live in this world, we get used to our things and our surroundings, and it doesn’t take long for us to get really, really comfortable. We start to think that things are ALWAYS going to be this way. And Jesus reminds us that they are NOT. The end is coming. And whether we are around for the end of the world, or the world is around for the end of us, our time, our life, is fleeting. We forget that, and we could be making a terrible mistake. We’ve got to set our hearts, we’ve got to set our lives, on what really last forever. And it’s not Craftsman tools! Only God last forever! The Lord and His Kingdom will be all that matters down the road. If that’s where all of us are headed, if that’s our future, shouldn’t that God and His Kingdom be much more a priority for us right now? Think of how many things that we spend so much time on, that aren’t even going to be around that long! It’s time for all of us to think about our future, and I’m not talking about our retirement. I’m talking about when we leave this world. Where are YOU headed?

The Gospel goes on to talk about persecution. Jesus seems to be making it pretty clear that we are not only going to have to persevere in our Faith, but that we are also going to have to persevere in the face of trials and tribulations. We can’t do that if our values are messed up. We’ve got to have clear priorities when it comes to our Faith and we have to be committed to them. Make no mistake about it, things are going to get crazier as we get closer to the end. And we are going to have to persevere. “By our perseverance we will save our lives.” God will not abandon us. He will get us through everything and get us safely home to Heaven. But we have to trust! We have to believe. We have to live the Christian life. We can’t be wishy-washy. We need to be committed. Are we?

They say that in a thousand years from now, that all that future archeologists are going to find of our civilization is PVC pipe. Now that stuff lasts a long, long time. We won’t be concerned about that then.

What’s going to matter then is our love of God and our love of one another. Today, may we persevere in both!

God bless us today, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…AMEN !!!

St. Maria Goretti… Pray for us !!!