Homily 388 – All This Will Be Yours – 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

In today’s reading from the prophet Daniel, we hear,

Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake;
some shall live forever,
others shall be an everlasting horror and disgrace.

Do you ever think about living forever? We are so used to the idea of life after death, that the shock of this incredible truth often fails to affect us. Sure, one day we will die, and then there’s life after death, but we tend to think that this has nothing to do with our life now. The truth is that the life to come should make all the difference in our lives right here and now.

One thing that eternity causes us to realize is just how temporary this life is. Compared to eternity, this life is over in the blink of an eye. Yet notice how we sometimes live as if we think this world will go on forever. Think of all the material stuff we accumulate and hoard as if we could take a u-haul with us to heaven. Everything is passing away.

This has been made all the more obvious to me as several of my relatives have been going through the process of moving. If you want a good exercise to see just how attached you are to the things of this world, think of all the stuff you have and what it would be like if you died today and someone had to go through your house to sell it. Recent experience has taught me that this is no fun at all. The other thing I’ve found that people do when selling their house is that they do all these projects to fix the place up to get it ready to sell. New paint, new carpet, new appliances. It always seems sad to me to fix a house up so nice just to sell it. Why not fix it up while you’re still living in it?

Both of these house-selling lessons provide good spiritual food for thought as well. How much “baggage” are you carrying around in life? Grudges, hurts, past sins? And what if you knew you were coming to the end of your life? What things would need fixing on your house?

With the end of the liturgical year almost here, the Church gives us a little practice in thinking about eternity. Let’s pretend the world is ending. What do you need to get rid of? What do you need to fix up? Watching family members sell their homes has convinced a lot of people in my family, myself included, that we don’t want to leave others a mess to clean up later. More importantly, we’ve all had to think about what really matters. God helps us to value things correctly. He wants to give us an inheritance, but it’s not a storage locker full of junk. Rather, God points us to heaven and says, “All this will be yours.”