Heaven, a rest after the toils of life are over! Heaven, a reward for fidelity! Oh! how good is the thought of heaven! How necessary to many as a stimulant to practise virtue and persevere therein! What a reward for a good life! The thought of heaven is very good, for it encourages us when we grow faint-hearted; the thought of heaven is that which prompts a man to abstain from evil and do good, because he knows that heaven will be his reward, and the loss of it his punishment. It is necessary; for, without this thought being before the mind of a Christian, he might give way to many an enticing temptation. It is far more meritorious, also, than the thought of hell, just as an act of contrition is more meritorious than an act of attrition; for the former excites us to sorrow for having offended a good God, who has created us for heaven, and the latter excites us to fear lest we incur the displeasure of an angry God and be condemned to hell.
The Holy Church, as a stimulant to the doing of good, as an encouragement to persevere under many difficulties and temptations, and as a reward for all our labors in saving our souls, ever keeps the thought of heaven before our minds. In the Sacraments she does this. The unregenerate cannot go to heaven because there is an obstacle—original sin; it is removed in Baptism; and the strength to fight in the spiritual warfare, is given by Confirmation. She calls us to Confession, because something is again between the soul and heaven, and that is mortal sin. She absolves us, and sends us to Holy Communion, which is a foretaste of heaven. She anoints the dying, that all the peculiar temptations which attack them in the hour of death may be overcome. She unites the "children of the saints" in Matrimony, because marriage is a sign of the union of heaven and earth, and gives the grace for the married couple to "marry in the Lord." She ordains her clergy, that they may teach the way to heaven, and distribute all those means of grace that are sure to bring us there. So you perceive that this seems to be the leading thought in the mind of the Church. It is the development of the response to the question that every Catholic child can answer—Why did God create you? "That I might know Him, and love Him, and serve Him here in this world, and be happy with Him for ever in the next."
The thought of heaven conveys the greatest consolation to those who in this world find but little happiness, and are surrounded by peculiar difficulties in the practice of virtue. It gives strength to those who grow tired of the spiritual life, and who would give up were it not for this thought. Hence the thought of heaven is good, necessary, and comforting.
The rest spoken of in the text is not for all, but only for the people of God. Who are the people of God? They are the people of God who are baptized and made members of the Catholic Church. But not all will enter into that rest prepared for them, because something more is necessary than simply being called by that name. Baptism is a sacrament which requires those whom it admits to be heirs of the kingdom of heaven, first to answer certain questions, and imposes certain obligations to be observed. The priest says to the person to be baptized, "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments, love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and thy neighbor as thyself." So you see that, at this very instant, the thought of heaven is suggested to the person, and the way to arrive there is clearly shown. And, before the priest pours the sanctifying water on the brow of the person, he says, "Dost thou renounce Satan and all his works and all his pomps?" When the person promises, "Yes, I do renounce them," then baptism is administered, and that person takes his place in the world a Christian. But not all who are called Christians are Christians indeed. Many do not live as though they believed in a God, a church, a heaven, or a hell. They follow the inclinations of their own sinful hearts, and live up to the false maxims of this wicked world. They do not walk according to the Spirit, but rather according to the flesh. They look on life as something to be enjoyed to the utmost, and when that is ended they consider all ended, body and soul. Ah! foolish people! who thus deceive themselves, who are ashamed of the religion of Jesus Christ, who violate without any remorse their baptismal vows, who treat our Lord far worse than did the Jews of old, for they never professed to believe in Him.
The way, then, to be a Christian in deed as well as in name is to live up to that "perfect law of liberty," that law which was made and given by God, which allows the highest kind of freedom to its observers, and which ennobles and elevates man rather than degrades him. This law is simple, and, if it is observed, all things will go on peaceably. As of old, the saying was, "All are not Israelites that are of Israel," [Footnote 88] so they are not heirs of the kingdom of heaven who do not walk in the path marked out for them to follow, or who do not fulfil the conditions required for a holy life. "Not every one that says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he that doeth the will of My Father who is in heaven." [Footnote 89]
[Footnote 88: Rom. ix. 6.]
[Footnote 89: St. Matt. vii. 21.]
And that will is made known to us all by the Catholic Church. She is the ark that will bring us safe to the haven of rest. She sets herself in array against the powers of this world and wicked men, because she is holy; she is born of God, and divine; she does this by her sacraments, her sacrifices, her laws, instructions, missions, and her institutions of charity. She teaches men reverence for holy persons and holy things; she teaches them to venerate the name of their Creator; she tells them to sanctify Sundays and holydays; she enjoins, under pain of eternal death—which includes the loss of heaven—honesty, justice, purity, sobriety, and all the other requirements of the decalogue. She is not conformed to this world or its ways. The world says: "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." "If your enemy strike you, strike him back; if he calumniate you, never forget it; if he do you an act of injustice, if he slander you, treasure it up, do not forgive, but pay him back some day with interest." The world says: "Eat and drink, grow rich in this world's goods, have a gay time, make the most of life: heaven is far away, and you will have opportunity to prepare when the time comes for it." "Make plenty of money," says the world, "no matter whether the business be just or lawful, you may get to heaven after all; others worse than you have had time to do penance before they died." But the Holy Church says differently. She enjoins charity, meekness, poverty of spirit, preparation for death. "If thine enemy hunger, give him to eat; if he thirst, give him to drink." [Footnote 90] "If a man strike thee on one cheek, turn to him the other." [Footnote 91] "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." [Footnote 92] These are her lessons of heavenly doctrine, which all must learn and put in practice, if they would obtain entrance into the kingdom of heaven. And every day she writes in letters of fire before our eyes: "In the hour that ye think not, the Son of Man cometh."
[Footnote 90: Rom. xii. 20.]
[Footnote 91: St. Matt. v. 39.]
[Footnote 92: St. Matt. v. 3.]