Do you have your license?

"So, how do you plead?"
"Not guilty"
"Please state your case"
"Your honor, all my life I have obeyed every traffic rule. I have never sped or run a red light. I use my blinker whenever I should and I always wear my seat belt. I am even courteous in traffic. I allow others to merge in front of me and let them pull out of parking lots. I have been a model citizen behind the wheel of a car."
"May I ask you one question?"
"Yes your honor."
"Do you or do you not have your drivers license?"
"Well your honor....uh....I...."
"Well, do you?"
"Uh....no, you honor, I do not have my license."
(POUND!!) "Guilty as charged!"
"You are sentanced to a $500.00 fine"

The second reading at mass today was Eph 2:4-10
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us,
5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
6 and raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
7 that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God --
9 not because of works, lest any man should boast.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

There are good people on this earth, people with good morals and values, that will not be getting into heaven. They are still going to have to pay the fine. Why? They lack faith. They believe that they are earning their way into heaven, that if they are "good" people they will go to heaven. These are the devil's favorite people. Surprised? Satan is not against good works. No, he is against good works done in the name of Christ Jesus. His goal is to take the name of Jesus out of our lives. He is getting close. We have taken His name out of our government, out of our schools, out of entertainment. But when good is done for the sake of Christ then he knows he has lost.
Those doing good to get to heaven don't believe, or don't know, that Christ already earned this for us. They don't have faith. They are not living their lives for Christ. God doesn't want us boasting that one of us was a better person that the other and that should qualify us into getting into heaven. This doesn't mean He doesn't want each of us to be the best person that we can and try to live a Christ-like life. He does, but our passage into heaven has already been granted.

To obtain a drivers license we go to the granting authority, the Secretary of State, have our photo taken and pay a slight fee to get this. To obtain passage into heaven we have to go to the granting authority also, God. But the price has already been paid for us by His son Jesus Christ (and you don't have to have your picture taken!) We just have to have faith. We also have to obey the rules of this faith. Just as a drivers license doesn't give us the right to drive anyway that we please, the gift of salvation isn't our pass into heaven, living our lives anyway that we want. We still have to live our lives in a way that reflects that faith.

14What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? 15Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? 17In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
18But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds."
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.

19You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

20You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless[d]? 21Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,"[e] and he was called God's friend. 24You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.

25In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? 26As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. James 2 14-16

My dad always told me "the road to hell is paved with good intentions". There are a lot of "good" people on this road. My prayer is that they invite Christ into their lives and accept His free gift and continue doing good, but now doing it for Him. In doing this it will put them on the highway to heaven.

The "real" body of Christ

As a young girl in school I participated in a science project that has come back to me. In showing where water goes in a plant we did a project that showed visible signs of this. If you take a white carnation or rose and cut the stem and place it in a glass of water colored with food coloring, the next morning you will find that the flower is turning the color of the water. It 'becomes' that color, taking on the properties of the water it has consumed. When we receive the Eucharist it is much the same. We are taking the body and blood of Christ into our bodies and He is becoming a part of us as much as we are becoming a part of Him. The flower needs water to survive, but unlike the flower that will eventually die, we will live forever having received the body of Christ. He told us that!

I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."

Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"

Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever." He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. John 6:48-59

He lost a number of followers because of this teaching. He could have told them at that moment that he only meant it figuratively or symbolically, but he didn't because he meant it just as he had said it.

Again at the last supper He said "Take, eat, this is my body, which will be given up for you." Then He took the cup and said "Take and drink, this is my blood which will be shed for all. Do this in remembrance of me." He didn't say - Act this out in remembrance of me. Or remember this as a symbol of me. He said do "this". "This" being - "eat my body".

In conversation this afternoon I was talking with someone about different churches. Music was the first thing to come up. He plays the bass and apparantly they have a band that plays upbeat Christian music at his church. I mentioned that I enjoyed that kind of music at the life-teen masses at my church down south, but they don't have that up here. Long story short I told him that I go to a Catholic Mass and as much as I like the new contemporary music I wouldn't trade my Eucharist for it. He said they received communion at his church also. I explained that I understood that but at his church it is only a representation of the last supper whereas in the Catholic Mass we are re-presenting the last supper. We are participating in a sacrament that Christ instituted and through that sacrament are receiving the actual body and blood of Christ. He apparently was raised Catholic and thought at this church he was receiving the same thing. I said "No, it is just a symbolic presentation of the last supper" I suggested he ask someone at his church next time he goes.
During the mass the priest doesn't have any special powers to make this change. It is called transubstansiation that occurs. The priest is only acting in per-sona. It is the power of the Holy Spirit and grace of Christ Jesus that makes all of this possible.

Just as the flower shows the beauty of the colors that have become a part of it may you show the beauty of Christ radiating from you.