Getting to Heaven

 

   If I asked a group of people if they wanted to go to heaven, I suspect the majority would answer yes.  Of course, there might be some agnostics and atheists among them who would just sneer and call the question foolish nonsense.

   For those who answered yes there is a second question; one they must answer for themselves alone; “What am I doing to make sure I get to heaven?”  Just wanting to enter God’s kingdom won’t open the doors, there are no magical words like “open sesame”.

   If heaven is the goal there are questions we must answer.  Do I love God?  How am I showing Him that I do?  Do I love my neighbor and see Christ within them?  Do I claim to love God but still live for earthly pleasure and gain?  We can’t have it both ways, we must choose whether we will serve the one true God or the false gods of this world.

   Getting to heaven is a way of life, a desire and earnest effort to follow God’s will; to accept His ways as the right ways and to avoid the wrong ways.  St. Paul wrote, “I have been crucified with Christ; yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me; insofar as I live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me.” (Gal 2: 19 – 20).

   The way to heaven is both simple and difficult; there will be trials and crosses to bear along the way.  But there is no other path that leads to heaven.  “Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up His cross, and follow me.’” (Matt 16: 24).