You’re not far from the Kingdom!
Homily originally preached
on October 31, 2021

When I graduated from college with an Electrical Engineering degree, I went to work for the Eastman Kodak Co. as a salesman in their Plastics Products Division.

Now over my 22 year career with them, I moved 5 times and with each move,

I  was able to purchase a bigger and  better place to live.

My first sales territory was based in Chicago, where I rented a small studio apt. with just parking lot parking.

After 2 years of working, I purchased

a 2 Bdrm. – 1 Ba. Townhome with a 1-car garage.

6 years later, I transferred to the Business Imaging Systems Div. and was assigned to a territory based in Seattle Wa., where I purchased

a 2 Bdrm. – 2 Ba. Condo with a 2-car garage for my 2 cars.

3 years later I was promoted to San Francisco, Ca and purchased another

2 Bdrm ,  2 Ba. Condo with 2-car Garage

3 years later I was promoted to Corp. Hdqtrs in Rochester, NY where I purchased a 4 Bdrm. 3 Ba. House with a 3-car garage ... for my 3 cars.

3 years later I was promoted to Regional Manager in Atlanta, Ga where I purchased a 5 Bdrm. 5 Ba. Home with a 4-car garage ... for my 4 cars.

It was an exciting journey ...  always buying brand new Homes ... and always enjoying the good times that they enabled me to have in living and entertaining.

Upon acquiring each one I felt great satisfaction that this was the best place ever!

Have you ever felt like that?    That you’ve found the perfect place to live ... the one with the perfect appearance, the perfect floorplan and ample storage space?

There’s great happiness that comes when you see your dreams come true.

You might even feel like ... you’re not far from the Kingdom of Heaven!

Perhaps each of you has had times when you thought you died and went to Heaven.

For some of you it may have been finding the right guy or girl to marry.

For some of you it may have been getting the job you always wanted  

or ... getting the cute little house with the white picket fence.

For others it may have been succeeding in a certain sport or

achieving a certain status or winning a certain award in the workplace. 

We often dream and say, “Oh, if I could only have this or that” ... or

“Oh, If I could only be this or that” ...

“Oh, I’d be so happy!”

But you know what ... eventually we come to discover ...

that regardless of what it is that we’ve achieved or acquired ...

we’re never completely satisfied ...

 and soon we’re looking for more.

Yes, our human thirsts and hungers and desires are infinite …

and they will never be fully satisfied by finite things.

Our infinite thirst for happiness will only be satisfied by an infinite source.

And there’s only one  ... God!

That’s the conclusion that God wants all of us to grasp

from our Scripture readings today.

In our First Reading from the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses tells the people very clearly where their hope, their help and their happiness is to be found …

it is...  in God ... and in Him alone.

Moses says, “Hear O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone!”

This rules out anything and everything else.         It rules out,

money, jewelry, status, esteem, position, power and yes … even beautiful homes!

Nothing on earth will ever satisfy us forever ... only God.

Therefore, nothing should ever take the place of God in our lives.

As the sole source of our infinite happiness, God is worthy of our full attention.

For this reason, Moses tells the people

“Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God,

with all your heart, with all your soul,

with all your mind, and with all your strength.”

It’s a timeless message as demonstrated in Matthew’s Gospel just proclaimed, where

when Jesus is asked by the Scribe, “Which is the first of all the commandments?”

He replies using the very same words that Moses had spoken 1300 years earlier!

Jesus says, “The Lord our God is Lord alone!”

And Jesus similarly emphasizes that we are to love God ...

 with all our heart and soul and mind and strength.

Jesus then adds something new to His ... New Law of Love.

announcing, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

This completes Jesus’ 2-fold Law of Love ... love of God and love of neighbor!

Following this Law ... will put you on ... the sure road to Heaven!

Jesus expresses this when He says to the Scribe who came to this understanding,

“You are not far from the Kingdom of God.”

Remember, God is love.    And for us to be with Him, we too must become love!

Yes, our hearts must be full of love ... for God ... and for neighbor.

Only then will we be allowed to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.

This was very radical thinking back then for the Jews ...

and it remains very radical thinking today for a great many people.

Sometimes, we humans think that if we just appease Almighty God

with good works and sacrifices, He’ll be happy and let us enter into Heaven.

But the truth is: God doesn’t want just our sacrifices ... He wants our hearts!

He wants our hearts to be full of love like His.

He wants us to freely choose ... to show our love for Him (who we cannot see) ...

and ... to show our love for our brothers and sisters (who we can see).

As the Scribe says in the Gospel,

“(Doing this) is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

The Sacrifice has been made!      Jesus, the God - man ...  made ...

the once for all sacrifice that put us back in a right relationship with the Father.

We’re reminded of this happy truth in our Second Reading today

from the Letter to the Hebrews where the author writes,

“(Jesus) has a priesthood that does not pass away.

Therefore, he is always able to save those who approach God through him,

since he lives forever to make intercession for them.”

Jesus is the Eternal High Priest ... who offered an Eternal Sacrifice ... for us!

We enter into that eternal sacrifice each time we pray Holy Mass.

Mass is the re-presentation of the once for all sacrifice of Jesus Christ!

It’s here at Mass that we’re united with Jesus on Calvary as He demonstrates

His perfect love for God the Father and for us.

It’s here at Mass that Heaven meets Earth as Jesus comes to us in Holy Communion.

It’s here at Mass that we’re ... “not far from the Kingdom!”

Every day is a new day to shuffle our priorities.

Jesus wants all of us to have the same understanding that the Scribe had

that our top priority is God ... and God alone!

How foolish for us to ever let anything else take over our top priority.

Nothing else has the ability to satisfy us for all eternity.

We’re going to be unsatisfied forever unless we find our way to our infinite God.

For me, the day finally came when I sold my house, my furniture, 3 of my 4 cars

and moved into a single bedroom at the Seminary ... and no garage!

You know, all those things I once had, that brought me a great deal of satisfaction,

well, I don’t think about them  any more!

It just goes to show you ...

that we human beings are designed for something far greater than

created things ... that will satisfy us only for a short time ...

No, we human beings were designed for union with

the un-created God ... Who will satisfy us forever.

Let’s be wise about the way we spend each and every day of our lives ...

and realize that ... we are created to seek after and be with ...

the One who made us.

For, we human beings were created for eternal union with God!

Remember ... the Greatest Commandment of God is to love ... because God is love.

He loves us infinitely and His one desire is for us to love Him in return.

If we show our love for Him and others, we’ll get to experience His Love forever!

So let’s keep God #1 in our lives:

loving Him with our whole being and loving our neighbors as ourselves.

It’s then and only then ... that we will truly be … not far from the Kingdom!