This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.
How can our joy be complete in Heaven, when there will be many who are not saved?
When, as foreseen in the first reading, the gates are opened, and a nation that is just is let in, He simultaneously brings down the lofty city, the city of the proud and arrogant. As glory as our heavenly destiny is, how can we truly rejoice when these are lost to eternal suffering?
When contemplating the most dramatic element of the human reality, this eternal division between the just and the condemned, we must remember that the latter choose their fate. It is true that (generally speaking) they do not see Heaven and Hell set before them, and choose Hell, but they firmly choose not to undergo the radical transformation God asks of them in this life, whatever the consequences.
There is perhaps no more eloquent metaphor for this choice in the Gospel than today’s parable of the house built on sand. Those who build on sand make a choice. They may want the sand for its location and the associated ease, pleasures, gratifications, but they know it is not destined to last. “And it collapsed and was completely ruined.”
We may rejoice wholeheartedly, because we have a God who is so merciful and so humble that He chooses to respect absolutely the freedom of His creatures, who would rather suffer in the long run than accept His challenges. It is safe to say that people are not as naïve as we think; we are not as special as we sometimes think in understanding life as a grand choice. People know this. But many simply choose the broad, easy path.
Ideas for conversation with the Lord: In this Advent time, contemplate the world in its darkness ahead of Jesus’ coming at Christmas. See yourself as His hope for getting an opportunity to infuse a disproportionate amount of the grace He brings at the Incarnation into others, to help them convert to Him, and give yourself to Him for this purpose. But do so serenely, understanding that it is His will to leave the final choice up to them.
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