Do you know something else about what makes us different from animals? We can hope. Last week I talked about how we have the freedom to choose to do what we want and not to follow our instincts and that we have not sinned once, so we have hope that we can do it again. I want to talk about this hope because it makes us different from animals as well because they just know and understand what is really in front of them and they cannot see what might be in the future. We hope that we will get to Heaven, we hope that things will get better, we hope that this is not everything.
We can see beyond what is just in front of us, but that can be difficult at times, especially when things feel hopeless and that we think nothing will get better. We can fall into the trap of feeling hopeless for something but trust me there is always hope. God is our hope. That is what we need to believe when things feel hopeless, God is there and things will get better, things will work out in the end because God is in control, and we hope in what he is doing.
As St. Paul reminds us “Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen.” When we have faith, we are hoping and believing in God and that he will provide for us here on Earth and hopefully one day we will be in Heaven. We are not automatically saved because of our faith, but because we are trying to get there one day. What we do here on Earth does get into Heaven or not and that is why we need to try to do better and to not sin. We might have to spend some time in Purgatory to be fully ready to go to Heaven. Our actions do have consequences and if we do not confess them or even try to reduce or stop sinning, then we might miss Heaven because we are not trying to get closer to God.
Brothers and sisters, this is what we are hoping, that one day we will not be stuck here on Earth, but that the work we have done here will get us to Heaven. That is why it is important for us to always strive for holiness by doing good works and always strive to reduce our sins. We need to work with God to get us to Heaven. Only through his love and mercy can we do it. That it is possible, so there is hope. The saints have done it and so can we. We hope that one day we will be there as well. We just need to work with God to do it.
What is something that you can do to always have faith and hope that things will get better, especially when things feel hopeless? We need to take the time to pray and ask God for guidance on what we can do to help with this because when those times come it can be hard to see that things will get better. Let me remind you, things will get better, so whatever fear, uncertainty, or doubt we have, know that things will get better and have faith that God is there.
We as humans can hope and see that things will get better and what we can try to do it. We can work with God to make our future better and there is always hope when things are hopeless. We can always know that God will make it better and we can hope and have faith in him. So, keep on hoping because things will get better for all of us who strive to get to Heaven.
Given on Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C