What shall I do to inherit eternal life?

Let us begin with a scene depicted in the Gospel. A lawyer approached Jesus and asked him: What shall I do to inherit eternal life? (Luke 10:25-37)

It is a question that we can repeat and ask ourselves. What am I here on earth for? Where am I going and how should I get there? What are my goals in life and what must I do to accomplish them? How shall I live my life?

These are questions that we need to particularly confront as we go through the last weeks of the Season of Lent. Pope Benedict XVI in his last year’s message for Lent says: “Lent is a privileged time of interior pilgrimage towards Him Who is the fount of mercy. It is a pilgrimage in which He Himself accompanies us through the desert of our poverty, sustaining us on our way towards the intense joy of Easter.”

Our life then is a pilgrimage, a journey of faith, a way of living that moves us forward and toward an eternal union with God, who is the fountain of love and mercy. The goal of our life is to live in such a way as to merit eternal life. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (Jn 3:16).

Our life is a journey of faith, of faith in God. The fundamental command of living is to make God present in our life. (Pope Benedict XVI, The Yes of Jesus Christ). There is only one kind of life that we must live, the right kind of life. It is a life of union with God. Our life is a life of relationship with God and a life of relationship with our neighbors, our fellowmen. How do we live this life? The following command summarizes the law and the teachings of the prophets: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself” (Luke 10:27).

“We mustn’t just believe in some theoretical way that God exists: we must consider him to be the most important and real thing in our life. As Scripture says, he must penetrate every layer of our life and fill it completely: our heart must know about him and let itself be moved by him; our soul; the power of our will and decision; our intelligence. He must be everywhere.” (The Yes of Jesus Christ) Don’t live for yourself alone. Live in the sight of God. Live in such a way that God will be pleased with you and welcome you in heaven and there to dwell forever in the company of all the angels and saints.

There is a key attitude that we need to have, to make God present in our life and in all our relations. It is the fundamental attitude of love. For love to grow within us and to overflow in our life, we must practice thinking with God, feeling with God, acting with God. God is love. When God is with us, his love is with us. When this happens, we experience true peace and joy.
Jesus commands us: Come with me; take up your cross; follow me (cf Mt 16:24). For whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me (cf 10:38). The cross in our lives takes many forms: problems of various kinds, contradictions, failures, weaknesses, shortcomings. Jesus commands us to take up these crosses, to carry them, to embrace them as a sign of our love for him.

Many times we go wayward, we fall, we commit sins, and we do what is evil in the sight of God. During these times, let us not be discouraged. Let us recall the words of Pope Benedict: God is the fount of mercy. God does not allow darkness to prevail. Echoing the words of Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict reminds us that there is a divine limit imposed upon evil, namely, mercy.
St. Matthew records another scene: “Jesus went around to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and illness. At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity” (Mt 9:35-36).

Jesus looks at the crowd and was moved with pity. We are part of the crowd. He is looking at us now, his gaze focused directly at us. He is looking at us deeply. His gaze is a gaze of love. He wants to dwell in our hearts. His is a gaze of compassion. He shares in our struggles and difficulties. His is a gaze of pity. He knows our shortcomings, our weaknesses, our many failures, our sins. His is a gaze of mercy. In spite of all our sins, Jesus offers us his merciful heart. He wants us to atone for our sins and to follow him. He offers us a gift, the gift of his self. He offers us the gift of his love.

Jesus also desires us to be like him, to be a Christ to others. To be loving, compassionate and merciful to all the people we meet in our life. He wants us to extend a helping hand to the less fortunate in our midst, the poor ones, the sick ones, the abandoned ones, the disabled ones. For whatever we do to the least of our brothers and sisters, we do it for Christ.

Pope John Paul II, Dives in Misericordia, had this to say: “It is precisely because sin exists in the world, which ‘God so loved...that he gave his only Son,’ that God, who is love, cannot reveal Himself otherwise than as mercy. Mercy in itself, as a perfection of the infinite God, is also infinite. Also infinite therefore and inexhaustible is the Father's readiness to receive the prodigal children who return to His home.”

We are all prodigal children. In this season of Lent, God bids us to return to him. Whatever our sins are, mortal or venial, serious or not, God is waiting for us. He is waiting for us through his priests at the confessional. “No human sin can prevail over or limit God’s power of forgiveness. On the part of man only a lack of good will can limit it, a lack of readiness to be converted and to repent, in other words persistence in obstinacy” (Dives in Misericordia).

Lent is a call for conversion. “Conversion to God always consists in discovering His mercy, that is, in discovering that love which is patient and kin as only the Creator and Father can be. God is rich in mercy” (Dives in Misericordia).

“Lent reminds us, therefore, that Christian life is a never-ending combat in which the 'weapons' of prayer, fasting and penance are used. Fighting against evil, against every form of selfishness and hate, and dying to oneself to live in God is the ascetic journey that every disciple of Jesus is called to make with humility and patience, with generosity and perseverance.” (Homily, Pope Benedict XVI, Ash Wednesday, 01 March 2006)

It is by dying to ourselves, taking up our crosses, and following Jesus Christ, that we will merit eternal life.