Fr. Jerry M. Orbos once told a
story that he listened to an old man sobbing unashamedly like a child, pouring
out the pain in his heart. All his years of hard work and his accumulated
wealth had backfired on him. His six children were not united but were envious
and jealous of each other. Three of them had not spoken to one another for years.
But the source of his heaviest grief was the thought that his children loved
him only because of the properties he would leave behind.
In Fr. Jerry’s story, there is an
absence of love among the children as well as between the children and their
parent. The absence of love gives rise to selfishness. Selfish people tend to
take advantage of everything for himself even if this means he would treat other
people not as human beings but as properties or things. In this world, selfish
people forget to be responsible for their actions as long as their wants are
satisfied. They do not care about the needs of others. They are not aware that
after they die, they have to face the judgment of God. This is what the Gospel
of Luke 16: 19-31 tells us. Selfish people go to hell because hell is a place
where there is no love to be found. People in hell have no more chance to enter
heaven. Heaven is only for people who know what love means. The Gospel puts
emphasis on this saying, “And besides all this, between us and you a great
chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may
not be able, and none may cross from there to us.” Therefore, we have to know
whether we stand closer to hell or to heaven by looking at our hearts whether
there is love or selfishness. Amen.
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