“If your hand causes you sin, cut it off..... If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out.” -- The Gospel Of James
TODAY'S Gospel reminds me of how stupid most of us are. We readily exchange the riches of this temporary life for the treasures of eternal life. You just have to look around and see the squalor and the decay of everything that is noble and true in the world. The world today reeks of pollution and not just of the sky but of the heart. The world is contaminated not only with dirty water but also with the foulness of spirit. You see it everywhere, you hear it everywhere. You even smell it. To most people this is it. This is the life they want with little regard for their eternal consequences. There is no tomorrow, there is only today with its greed, money, cars, mansions, and power. Their idols have transformed them into gods who have turned their backs on the one God.
Perhaps, we can understand that we often lose our way. We all have gone astray one way or another. We all have our own excuses. What is yours? We have lost ourselves in what is temporal. But it is different when we no longer see what is important and basic. We delude ourselves constantly with justifications and perversions. And yet it amazes me how some people have literally sold their souls for what is in this world.
When Alexander the Great was dying he instructed his generals that when he died he wanted that when his corpse was brought, they would show his hands. He explained it by saying, we cannot bring anything with us.
The only thing we can bring with us are our deeds and that works both ways. Good and bad deeds are the only thing that will accompany us and that can be a relief and a terror. When we die, what sort of deeds shall we bring? Scary thought.
According to Wikipedia Pascal's Wager (or Pascal's Gambit) is the name for an idea that Blaise Pascal had. Pascal's argument is a simple one: reason and intellect cannot decide the question of whether God exists or not; therefore, it makes sense to choose the option that would benefit us most should we be right.
Live as if there is a God because when you die and there is a God that would benefit you. But if you live like there is no God and when you die, you see Him face to face, you will probably lose everything, and all your cars, money, power will not mean anything, nor can it save you. Eternity can be bliss or endless torment. God cannot be bribed.
Well, that is if you still believe in God.