18th Sunday of year (C) 3 August 2025 Pilgrims
God gives us a world full of beauty and then tells us not to become too attached to it!
This we might perceive to be somewhat cruel on His part, but He has our wellbeing in mind.
It is something like you get a box of chocolates for your birthday but you know you should not eat them all at once.
Life is like that. We are tempted to throw off restraint and indulge ourselves with various passions, either wrong in themselves, or taken out of their proper balance. Eg too much computer use or social media.
What is God doing to us? He is training us, forcing us to go through certain exercises to become more sharply focused.
See how you go at being generous with your time and possessions.
See how you go at being ready to give things up, if required.
These are areas where we can learn and improve. We do it for other areas of life, why not the spiritual life?
The rich man forgot that he was on a journey, that he was not in his final home. He became too attached to his surroundings.
We should get ready for Heaven. It is coming closer in time, and in our readiness to enter there.
By a combination of sorrow for past sin, and making new resolution we can make progress, and this is the idea.
I am going to heaven means union with God and all the other heavenly citizens. It is not just a place of pleasures, but of deep union with God, for which we were created.
God expects us to go through this life aspiring to be with Him not allowing ourselves to be too immersed in this life. If there is any immersing it is with God, not the things God has given us.
To be totally immersed in God's will and so grow in stature spiritually.
It just takes a bit of discipline. And perseverance.
And coming back again and again to the main point. Do not make the same mistake as the rich man. He forgot he was going anywhere. He did not consider his immortality. He forgot to consider the end of his life – end in ‘time’, and end in ‘purpose’.
We need to know the end before setting out. We take provisions for the journey insofar as we equip ourselves like the wise virgins (Mt 25,1-13).
Our prayers and sacraments help
us to get back on the road.
Many lose faith in God when they are deprived of something or someone they love.
We entrust those we have loved to God's mercy. We hope to see them again, but even that will not be the main point. First we will be in union with God.
We could see this life as a training ground, like a camp. We gradually catch on.
Whatever we use or have in this life we express gratitude and detachment.
The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh. Blessed be the name of the Lord (Job 1,21).
And what joy when our journey is complete; then there is no more giving up or taking away.
We grasp all this and then we explain it to our neighbours, if they will listen!
Every situation, every experience can be a winner, a chance for correction and growth.
We encourage each other as we are all in the same boat, trying to bring that boat to the eternal shore.
It is all a matter of directing our desires to the right place. If we love this world too much we love Heaven not enough.
Think of whatever we love here as a preview of Heaven. To stimulate our appetite.
Like the deer that yearns for running streams, so my soul is thirsting for You, my God (Ps 42,1).
