OUR AIM IN LIFE
by VP
Posted on Sunday August 25, 2024 at 12:00AM in Sermons
'Seek ye therefore first the Kingdom of God."—MATT. vi. 33.
1. It is natural to seek and desire.
2. But how few, the Kingdom of God!
3. What is meant by the Kingdom of God"? -Christ teaches us.
"It is natural to man to seek after something. There is always a want in the heart, and man seeks after that which he imagines will fill the void. Test this. Usually it is something that will ensure a better income, a position, influence; or maybe just the pleasure and joy of life, variety, excitement, the vogue of the present. Or it may be a loving heart seeks for love; it is ready to give, and yet it yearns for a return of affection. Whatever it may be, a man, worthy of the name of man, is seeking something, is keen after something.
But looking around us in the world, the last thing that would strike us would be that the chief thing that mankind was seeking was "the Kingdom of God." And yet that is the injunction of our Blessed Lord: "Seek ye therefore first the Kingdom of God." Seek it, yea, seek it first! Seek it above everything else! It is of no avail to own that the world at large utterly neglects this solemn word of Christ. The practical point is to ask ourselves our own soul-are we seeking first this Kingdom of God? Is there not something else in our heart striving to be master there? Is there not something else that dominates our interest, our time, our thoughts? About which we are more keen and anxious, more strenuous and determined, than gaining the Kingdom of God.
But you may object: What is this Kingdom of God? How have we to seek it? Can it be that we have to discard and reject the pursuits and pleasures of the world that lure us on, and are not satisfied without they are supreme in our heart, to banish them utterly and listen to what faith tells us of the Kingdom of God? The message of faith strikes us cold and numbs our heart; for we are told in the book that we dare not doubt nor disobey about the Kingdom of God. The gospel says: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven." Blessed are the meek: those that mourn: those that hunger and thirst after justice: the merciful, the clean of heart, the peacemakers: yea, "Blessed are they who suffer persecution for justice sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven ” (Matt. v. 3, 10)."
Such is the teaching of the God of Truth, God made man for our sakes. These words are in His first sermon, and did not His own life bear them out? He did not teach one thing, and do another. He was born in a stable-poor in spirit. He said, "Learn of Me, because I am meek, and humble of heart" (Matt. xi. 29). He was the Man of sorrows. He was merciful; and the peacemaker, for He came in His mercy to reconcile poor rebel sinners to His Father. He suffered persecution, even to the death of the Cross, and thus He won the Kingdom of heaven. "Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and so to enter into His glory?" (Luke xxiv. 26).
And the sacred book teaches us again, what would all the pleasures and glory of the world be to us (and how little shall we ever gain of them !)?—for "the world passeth away" (1 John ii. 17). All that has enthralled the hearts of men with vain hopes is nothing more but merely the short lived glory of a summer's day. Whereas we have immortal souls to satisfy; how can transient joys suffice for them? What a void there would be; and alas, how soon in our deluded souls! Peace and plenty, joy and comfort, friends and love around us only make the thought of death the more to be dreaded, and the leaving them all, the final separation, the more appalling.
Look through the dark and fearful vista of the future, the sacred book comes to our assistance once again. "Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world" (1 John ii. 15). Seek not this world and its joys and its vain happiness, but seek first the Kingdom of God, and then when life is over, what a revelation of glory there will be, a Kingdom of glorious eternity. The cross becomes the crown: the poor take possession of the Kingdom; the meek shall possess the land; those that have mourned and suffered shall rejoice; the merciful shall find mercy; the clean of heart shall see God; the peacemakers and those that have forgiven shall find forgiveness and a welcome to their Father's home; and those that have suffered for Christ's sake, theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Poor, unknown, despised on this earth, we may have been: obedient, humble, and contrite of heart, we have daily done our best to seek first the Kingdom of God, and death will reveal it to us that we have succeeded, and the blessed success will last for ever! No more anxiety and fear of falling into sin; no more crosses and afflictions. We shall be transformed into the children of light and glory, companions of the saints, surrounded by the angels. Children of Mary, we shall then learn what it is to have the Queen of heaven for our Mother. We shall be welcomed by our Lord and Savior, because we have obeyed His words in the holy book. And for ever we shall dwell with our Father in heaven, because we kept that word, "Seek ye therefore first the Kingdom of God."Short Sermons on the Epistles & Gospels of the Sundays of the Year By Fr. Francis Paulinus Hickey OSB (14th Sunday after Pentecost)
