In this Gospel, Jesus assures us that if we follow him and the Gospel, we shall “receive a hundred times as much in this present age… and in the age to come: eternal life.” But sometimes when we feel like we are at our lowest point, following the Gospel by doing what is good and avoiding what is evil leads us to question God. We ask, “What have we done to deserve these sufferings?” We forget why we followed God and the Gospel.
Also, we tend to do things only because it is the right thing to do. What used to be service to God becomes routine work without seeing the end goal of things. We tend to do what is right without a purpose. We forget to offer our everyday lives to God and sometimes when we are tired, we deviate from what is right and give in to temptations. We think that life is just about mere suffering. Since we do not have a clear grasp of what is to come in life after death, we lose our purpose in life. We get lost.
What we fail to remember is that God has a plan for all of us. When we pray the Lord ‘s Prayer, we say “Thy will be done.” Do we really know what this means? Do we believe and follow it? It is not as easy as just reciting the line. These four words should always remind us to put our complete trust on God so that things do happen for a reason. Let us continue to pray for patience and wisdom so we can understand God’s plan. Let us pray that we may learn to put our complete trust and faith on God.
May our lives reflect that faithfulness to his teachings. Even if the gratification may be long delayed, it is something worth our time. We must continue to strive in becoming better Christians, better examples of God’s love alive in this world. In some sense, more people will see what it means to live a life destined for heaven.
