Day 18. The Kingdom of God is a gift, and precisely because of this, it is great and beautiful, and constitutes the response to our hope. And we cannot-to use the classical expression-"merit" Heaven through our works. Heaven is always more than we could merit, just as being loved is never something "merited", but always a gift. However, even when we are fully aware that Heaven far exceeds what we can merit, it will always be true that our behaviour is not indifferent before God and therefore is not indifferent for the unfolding of history. We can open ourselves and the world and allow God to enter: we can open ourselves to truth, to love, to what is good. This is what the saints did, those who, as "God's fellow workers", contributed to the world's salvation (cf. 1 Cor 3:9; 1 Th 3:2).
Reflection by Msgr. Vaccari
Our Holy Father reminds us of the importance of everything we do before God. God watches and sees our actions, and using them to advance his divine plan. How wonderful it is that we can open ourselves to truth, love and goodness, even after we have failed to do so in the past. It is remarkable that we have so many choices, and that we always have the chance to start again, to try to do better than we did in the past. We can always put ourselves, with God's help, on the road to heaven and move further along on the road than we have been before. In this, there is great hope!Goodness is better than comfort!
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Day 19. But in truly great trials, where I must make a definitive decision to place the truth before my own welfare, career and possessions, I need the certitude of that true, great hope of which we have spoken here. For this too we need witnesses—martyrs—who have given themselves totally, so as to show us the way—day after day. We need them if we are to prefer goodness to comfort, even in the little choices we face each day—knowing that this is how we live life to the full.
Reflection by Teresa Monaghen
This is a great and pertinent passage from the encyclical. We need to be able to make the little choices before the big ones will ever come.-goodness over comfort in a world where comfort is a god – at all costs we need comfort says our culture. Oh Lord, show me how to so love goodness that I cannot imagine compromising it! I am a product of our culture too, and have become soft. Amen.
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