Joke: A Sunday school teacher asked his class, “If I sold my house and my car, had a big garage sale, and gave all my money to the church, would that get me into Heaven? “NO!” they all answered. “If I cleaned the church every day, mowed the yard, and kept everything neat and tidy, would that get me into Heaven?” Again, the answer was, “NO!” Again the teacher asked, “Well, then, if I were kind to animals and gave candy to all the children, and loved my wife, would that get me into Heaven?” Again, they all answered, "NO!" “Well, then how can I get into Heaven?” A five-year-old boy shouted out, “YOU GOTTA BE DEAD!”

“You gotta be dead!” Perhaps, it is our understanding that we need to be dead to be united with the Lord in heaven with all the saints and the heavenly host. Is it so? In all of today’s scripture readings, the Church invites us to examine the lives of the saints to see how they get sanctified to be saints. Is it when they know Christ and live a life of Christ? How do they know Christ and live the life of Christ if it’s not through the legacy, the Beatitudes that he left for us reported in today’s Gospel?

Some years ago, a wealthy Frenchman by the name of Count Alfred de Pierre-court left his entire fortune of $2 million to pay for the growing of giants. The courts upheld the will to the extent of allowing one-fourth of the estate, $500,000, to be used for this experiment. The city officials of Rouen, France, were to search the world for men and women of large stature, pair them off in couples, and place them in homes near Rouen. The experiment failed in a few years. More than 2,000 years ago, the greatest person who ever walked this earth left a legacy to produce, not physical giants, but spiritual giants; not people who were big in body, but people who were big in soul. We just read His will in today’s Gospel, the famous Sermon on the Mount which gives us the formula for making spiritual giants. We call this program the Eight Beatitudes, the eight ways to inherit the Kingdom of God. Saints, the Church celebrates today, are those who responded to God’s invitation by living out these Beatitudes. Their lives are not only about spreading the Word of God but about living a heroic life.

A story tells that there is a Buddhist monk who lives a famous spiritual life. On his working desk, he places a little coffin, a casket, about 2 feet long with a slide coffin cover. People come to visit him, and some, out of curiosity, often ask him about that coffin, he says that people live up to the day that they have to die; and when they die, they have to lie in a casket. What usually surprises me is that we often focus our lives on material goods and powers such as big houses, fancy cars, high education, good food, high position at work, a good reputation in business, and so on, and we don’t pay attention to our death, the time of departing from this earthly life. Each time, when I run into struggle, stress, or am unsuccessful in what I want it to be, I often hold the casket up, stare at it for a while, and then find myself at peace again. We often try to achieve what we want to achieve in our lives that somehow we ignore such as ignoring to follow the beatitudes. This happens, perhaps, because we don’t think of the moment the Lord comes to ask us to leave this earthly life. When we have to face a serious illness or even a sudden death, it might be too late then, and when we die, what can we bring with us into the casket? Death will be a scary moment when we still have a lot of things to accomplish. On the contrary, when we meditate on death every day, death might become a good friend, a companion with us on a journey toward the end. It might help us to get rid of our stress, anxiety, and boring walk of life. More than that, the wise man is the one who aims his life toward the end. Our end is nothing but to be united with the Lord, with his angels and all the Saints in heaven by following the Beatitudes.

Let’s take some time this week to ask the Lord to increase our faith, hope, and love to have the strength and courage to bring that beatitude alive in our lives. Only those who are still alive need to have the increase of faith, hope, and love. When we die, there will be no faith, but hope and love since we are dead, but hope that the living ones pray for us, to intercede for us, to soon enjoy the heavenly Kingdom. When we are with the Lord in heaven, there will be no faith, nor hope, but love alone together with the Lord, the heavenly hosts, and all the saints. So, what have we aimed our life in this walk of life? Have we aimed it toward inheriting the kingdom of God? What helps us to aim our lives toward the heavenly kingdom if it’s not the legacy that the Lord Jesus left for us, the Beatitudes? The decision is yours.