Tuesday of the 32nd Week in Ordinary Time [II]
Titus 2:1-8,11-14  +  Luke 17:7-10
November 8, 2022

The just shall possess the land / and dwell in it forever.

During the last weeks of the Church year—which more or less correspond with the month of November—the Church asks us to turn our attention to what she calls the “Last Things”.  Each Christian needs to focus his or her attention upon Heaven and Hell, death and judgment.

A lot of people like to think, and lead their lives, believing that only one of these four things even exists.  Of course there is a Heaven.  Heaven is the place where everyone goes when they die:  this is what some people believe.  This is what some people teach.  But this is not what Jesus taught.

Jesus taught that people, if they do not follow Him, will go—not to Heaven, but to that other place, called Hell.  King David, in composing today’s psalm, puts it this way:  “The salvation of the just comes from the Lord.”  Salvation—being saved, which is another way of saying, “getting to Heaven”—does not come from ourselves, but only from the Lord.  If we try to get to Heaven by ourselves, or if we try to make our own Heaven, we will fail, and end up forever without God.  We are responsible for doing many things, and at the end of our lives, we should be able to give an account of what we have done.  Still, none of those things are what get us into Heaven.