How the "Duties of Your State of Life" Hold the Keys to Heaven
So what are you: married, single? Got a family? Working? Maybe unemployed? Whatever you are, there are duties for you to fulfill appropriate to your state of life.
For example, if you're married and have kids and you're working, your duties include setting aside money to support your family (as opposed to going out and spending it on yourself!) - you know, food, clothing shelter...that sort of stuff. You also owe your wife and family your best intentions, your best behavior, even a friendly, cheerful demeanor.
Now lets say you perform your duties well. You're working, you provide, you even save, you're faithful to your wife, a good example to your kids, you're even a cheerful sort most of the time (wish I could say that) . Congratulations! But before you accept your "husband/father of the year" award, there may be more to do. And it's got to do with Heaven.
Remember that Heaven is our goal - all of us. Your wife, your kids, everyone needs to get to Heaven. Whatever you do here on earth while you're alive won't matter much to you if you don't get to Heaven when you die. That's why the Church has always taught that getting to Heaven is our #1 priority.
So now that you're performing the duties of your state of life faithfully and well, should you start praying more, maybe get to daily Mass, spend some time alone in meditation, just to be with Our Lord - you know, all those daily "pious" practices that good Catholics should be doing?
Yes and no.
Yes you should improve your daily spiritual activity - those pious practices that we all know we should be doing. So why no?
No, because the first thing you might need to do is to perform those everyday duties of life a little differently. How do you know if you need to perform those duties - the ones you already do faithfully - any differently? It's got to do with "how" you perform those duties.
If you just sort of "get them done," or "slog" through those duties every day, then you could use some improvement (believe me, I know!). Just getting things done isn't enough - even if you're perfectly consistent day after day.
First, you need to do your duty for the love of God. Doing your duty for the love of God spells sanctity (that's the state you need to be in to get to Heaven). Digging deeper, you need to do your duty out of love for God, seen as manifestations of God's will - God's will, not yours. So ask yourself whether you're doing your duty as a manifestation of God's will, as opposed to doing your duty to show yourself (and maybe others) that you're a great guy.
Dig deeper again. Do your duty generously, accomplishing each task with a supernatural motive expressed by your perfect attention, by your deep fervor, your desire to love God and your neighbor. For example, every task you perform at work can be done with this attention and fervor, with the desire to please God, to perform your work out of love for God and neighbor.
I performed my duties faithfully for years before any of this sank in. I was even occasionally cheerful as I plowed through the duties of my state of life. But it's taken me a while to understand how to work for the love of God. I think it's just starting to really sink in now.
So spend a few minutes thinking about yourself. I hope you're doing the duties of your state of life faithfully. If not, get going starting right NOW. If you already are - even if you're doing your duty cheerfully - think about whether you're doing your duty with a supernatural motive, i.e., for the love of God and love of neighbor.
It's important. It's how each of us will get to Heaven.
For example, if you're married and have kids and you're working, your duties include setting aside money to support your family (as opposed to going out and spending it on yourself!) - you know, food, clothing shelter...that sort of stuff. You also owe your wife and family your best intentions, your best behavior, even a friendly, cheerful demeanor.
Now lets say you perform your duties well. You're working, you provide, you even save, you're faithful to your wife, a good example to your kids, you're even a cheerful sort most of the time (wish I could say that) . Congratulations! But before you accept your "husband/father of the year" award, there may be more to do. And it's got to do with Heaven.
Remember that Heaven is our goal - all of us. Your wife, your kids, everyone needs to get to Heaven. Whatever you do here on earth while you're alive won't matter much to you if you don't get to Heaven when you die. That's why the Church has always taught that getting to Heaven is our #1 priority.
So now that you're performing the duties of your state of life faithfully and well, should you start praying more, maybe get to daily Mass, spend some time alone in meditation, just to be with Our Lord - you know, all those daily "pious" practices that good Catholics should be doing?
Yes and no.
Yes you should improve your daily spiritual activity - those pious practices that we all know we should be doing. So why no?
No, because the first thing you might need to do is to perform those everyday duties of life a little differently. How do you know if you need to perform those duties - the ones you already do faithfully - any differently? It's got to do with "how" you perform those duties.
If you just sort of "get them done," or "slog" through those duties every day, then you could use some improvement (believe me, I know!). Just getting things done isn't enough - even if you're perfectly consistent day after day.
First, you need to do your duty for the love of God. Doing your duty for the love of God spells sanctity (that's the state you need to be in to get to Heaven). Digging deeper, you need to do your duty out of love for God, seen as manifestations of God's will - God's will, not yours. So ask yourself whether you're doing your duty as a manifestation of God's will, as opposed to doing your duty to show yourself (and maybe others) that you're a great guy.
Dig deeper again. Do your duty generously, accomplishing each task with a supernatural motive expressed by your perfect attention, by your deep fervor, your desire to love God and your neighbor. For example, every task you perform at work can be done with this attention and fervor, with the desire to please God, to perform your work out of love for God and neighbor.
I performed my duties faithfully for years before any of this sank in. I was even occasionally cheerful as I plowed through the duties of my state of life. But it's taken me a while to understand how to work for the love of God. I think it's just starting to really sink in now.
So spend a few minutes thinking about yourself. I hope you're doing the duties of your state of life faithfully. If not, get going starting right NOW. If you already are - even if you're doing your duty cheerfully - think about whether you're doing your duty with a supernatural motive, i.e., for the love of God and love of neighbor.
It's important. It's how each of us will get to Heaven.
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