MERIT --------HOW GOOOOOOD IT IS!
Today you can watch the stock market, which millions of people do, check with Merit – to see how much gold or silver you
should buy, cut out coupons to see how much you can save on your groceries --- all of these to see how materialism has
entered into our lives. There is something else- merit.
Jesus often speaks to is of the merit which even the smallest of our deeds has if we do it for Him. And merit is far better
than all the things that perish.
You and I have a tremendous opportunity to acquire merit. Once we are in heaven we cannot gain merit because that is
where we will enjoy the happiness we will get from being in heaven. If we are in purgatory we cannot merit either but only
suffer for the sins we have committed during the life we led. Only in our lives can we do anything for ourselves toward our
happiness in heaven.
When we do our good deeds it is for Christ and His love that we do them. As He says, if we do only good deeds as
pagans do them there is no merit in that, but only when we do them for God will we obtain merit; when we do as the
pagans there is no merit in that because the reward they will get are strictly that, a pagan’s reward
If we look at good deeds we can always think of the corporal and spiritual works of mercy which we wrote about years
ago. If we act as Christians and do a good deed for the sake of Christ and trying to se Christ in the recipient of that deed
we will gain the merit for that deed. That is why it is such an important thing to do the corporal and spiritual works of
mercy as Christ Himself mentions that by them we will be judged as sheep or goats and the end of time.
God has assured us through Isaiah the prophet “”my chosen ones shall not labor in vain.” We have God’s guarantee that
whatever we do will see rewards either here on earth or in heaven. Nothing we do for God will be fruitless. Saint Paul
says when he tells the early Christians “Each shall receive his wages according to his labors.”
Now is the time for merits – one we are dead we do not have that chance. Your good works shall be your investment
according to St Ignatius of Antioch, God in this life repays us bountifully.
The next time we listen to the Dow for the day think of how much you could store up for heaven by doing a good deed in
God’s name for someone whom you do not even know, but know that the person is a creature of God, created in His own
image and likeness.
©2013 Fr Louis Schlangen
Today you can watch the stock market, which millions of people do, check with Merit – to see how much gold or silver you
should buy, cut out coupons to see how much you can save on your groceries --- all of these to see how materialism has
entered into our lives. There is something else- merit.
Jesus often speaks to is of the merit which even the smallest of our deeds has if we do it for Him. And merit is far better
than all the things that perish.
You and I have a tremendous opportunity to acquire merit. Once we are in heaven we cannot gain merit because that is
where we will enjoy the happiness we will get from being in heaven. If we are in purgatory we cannot merit either but only
suffer for the sins we have committed during the life we led. Only in our lives can we do anything for ourselves toward our
happiness in heaven.
When we do our good deeds it is for Christ and His love that we do them. As He says, if we do only good deeds as
pagans do them there is no merit in that, but only when we do them for God will we obtain merit; when we do as the
pagans there is no merit in that because the reward they will get are strictly that, a pagan’s reward
If we look at good deeds we can always think of the corporal and spiritual works of mercy which we wrote about years
ago. If we act as Christians and do a good deed for the sake of Christ and trying to se Christ in the recipient of that deed
we will gain the merit for that deed. That is why it is such an important thing to do the corporal and spiritual works of
mercy as Christ Himself mentions that by them we will be judged as sheep or goats and the end of time.
God has assured us through Isaiah the prophet “”my chosen ones shall not labor in vain.” We have God’s guarantee that
whatever we do will see rewards either here on earth or in heaven. Nothing we do for God will be fruitless. Saint Paul
says when he tells the early Christians “Each shall receive his wages according to his labors.”
Now is the time for merits – one we are dead we do not have that chance. Your good works shall be your investment
according to St Ignatius of Antioch, God in this life repays us bountifully.
The next time we listen to the Dow for the day think of how much you could store up for heaven by doing a good deed in
God’s name for someone whom you do not even know, but know that the person is a creature of God, created in His own
image and likeness.
©2013 Fr Louis Schlangen