So we are always courageous, although we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yet we are courageous, and we would rather leave the body and go home to the Lord. Therefore, we aspire to please him, whether we are at home or away. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive recompense, according to what he did in the body, whether good or evil (2 Cor 5:6-10)I don't mind observing, yet again, that most contemporary Christian spirituality is rooted in presumption.
To wit: It's never a question of whether or not God loves you, Christ crucified is proof enough of that (John 3:16-17)! The question is, Do you love Him with all your heart, might, mind, and strength?
"In your struggle against sin," have you "resisted [sin] to the point of shedding blood"? (Heb 12:4). Of course, the sacred author is referring to the shedding of your own blood.
While love of God and love of neighbor are inextricably bound together, to the point of Scripture telling us that to say we love God and yet fail to love our neighbor makes one a liar (1 John 4:20), the two are distinct and distinguishable.
Two ways that we love God is by attending Mass each and every Sunday and on holy days, as well as confessing our sins and failures as often as we, in all honesty, need to, in order to receive Christ's pardon and peace. We must not simply dispense ourselves from participating in these objective means given to us so lovingly by God. To do so is be presumptuous in a most dangerous, damaging, perhaps even damning, way.
Advent is a great time to examine ourselves, to prepare to receive what the Father offers us in His Son, which is everything! Life is short, eternity is long.
"He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and His kingdom will have no end."
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