Waiting,Watching, Keeping Time and Eternity

"Therefore, stay awake,  
for you know neither the day nor the hour."

Eternity is a long time.  Just when you think you've been there for a long time, it dawns on you that you've only just begun.  This reality is the reality for all of us, Christian, non-Christian, Buddhist, Atheist, or whatever.  Each of us bears within us a never-ending supply of life.  This, even more than the speed of light, is the one law that will affect all of us.  In a week, or in a year, or maybe tomorrow we will cast off this temporary housing and find ourselves standing before the judgment seat of God and there we will see in His awesome beauty, Jesus Christ,  The Son of God.  We will render an account of our life to Him and the location we will choose where we will spend our eternity in, either heaven with God, or if we choose, hell, without Him.

Thomas A' Kempis in the Imitation of Christ tells us that we should not put off doing a good deed until later because we do not know if we will even draw one more breath.  That is what the story of the virgins waiting for the bridegroom means. Be ready at any moment because we do not know the time that Jesus will call us.  This lesson, for me, is easier to understand now as I am older than it was when I was very young.  The youth feel the seed of immortality more keenly than the old because it is so close to the surface and it has not taken root as it has in the more mature.  The young in the spring of life interpret this feeling as being applicable to their lives here on earth and the door to eternity is so far away that it bears no consideration. 

Be watchful, young and old, men and women, for the chances to do good that come your way. Do the good not out of fear of losing heaven if you do not do them, for heaven is a free gift. Do the good deeds in celebration of the life that you have been given with the knowledge that what you do for others will please our Father in heaven. 

The poor souls in purgatory cannot pray themselves out of there and into heaven.  They depend on us to help them. I believe that praying for the poor souls is the ultimate good deed - remember to pray for them today and dedicate your weekly Mass to them.  You will be glad that you did.