Light

DAY'S SAINTS
Gunifort, Martyr
Queenship of Mary

Gospel Mt 19:23-30
Jesus said to his disciples:
"Amen, I say to you, it will be hard for one who is rich
to enter the Kingdom of heaven.
Again I say to you,
it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle
than for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God."
When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and said,
"Who then can be saved?"
Jesus looked at them and said,
"For men this is impossible,
but for God all things are possible."
Then Peter said to him in reply,
"We have given up everything and followed you.
What will there be for us?"
Jesus said to them, "Amen, I say to you
that you who have followed me, in the new age,
when the Son of Man is seated on his throne of glory,
will yourselves sit on twelve thrones,
judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters
or father or mother or children or lands
for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more,
and will inherit eternal life.
But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first."

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We see so little of His light; the
world is filled with His light.

No man who lies and promotes violence and prejudice and hate can enter Heaven, for there is no lie in Jesus, and the world to come is Jesus.

There is also no violence or hatred In Jesus, and anyone who seeks to promote himself as a follower of Jesus who lies, hates and commits violence against his brother will ever see the glory of God in eternity.

Where violence and lies spew from a man's mouth, there is no joy, no peace and no rest, and the causes they espouse cannot last because Jesus is uprooting all such growth in the Body Christ.

Jesus told the truth, even when it caused much dismay amongst those who followed Him and listened to what He had to say. In the world, one of the chief reasons for abandoning the world is to be free to surrender one's whole self to Jesus, and a man must be honest with God and himself to do any good in the world.

A person who lies, cheats, steals and commits violence cannot do any good in the world no matter what he thinks, because to do good one must be good, and if one is doing evil he is not good, but evil, and the results of all his works are all tainted with the corruption of the world. Nothing of the world goes where the Lord has in mind, except that lies and evil and immorality go to hell whence they came, there to suffer forever.

Woe to those who take away a person's freedom, and the things for which they worked so hard; such men are not followers of Jesus, and can never be. The person who says he loves Jesus but is in love with evil and sin cannot love Jesus who is the opposite of all such things. The joy of heaven consists in Jesus and His goodness and His love and nothing more. If you have any notion that you can commit sins and evil and still serve God you are mistaken and sadly misled. Rid yourself of the world and attachments to it, in order to be free of corruption and its stench, asking forgiveness for your sins and offering atonement so you may be free to live as Jesus lived.

The work of God is to transform us to be like Him, and true joy is knowing Jesus and reveling in Him as He is, and heaven is the ultimate expression of His joy. 

If a person has done nothing to be forgiven and has made no attempt to atone for sin has yet to begin the arduous journey that ends in God. Along the way we gain freedom, the ability to see God and know Him as He is, and has begun to be happy belonging to God. Beginning to see Him as He is persuades us to be more like Him, and our affection becomes deeper and more profound and lasting, while nothing of this world has any lasting fascination for us as His creation.

The journey to God begins in desiring to do His Will so that our taste is for the divine and not for the pleasures of this world. That is not to say that the world of God is insipid, for it has a savor for the holy, which surpasses all we have known in our life. He permitted us to taste the good things in the world and to savor them, in the hope that we will be drawn to the Source of all things and desire Him instead. The graces He gives, save us, and protect us and guide us, and no man lives who did not benefit from God's grace. If we have disappointed Him, it is because we were satisfied with the good things we found in life and never desired to see Him more clearly, or to embrace Him for affectionately in the midst of all our collected preferences.

Begin today to love the Lord.