Some people want to stay young forever so they turn to a plastic surgeon for help. The problem there is we all know we are dust and to dust we shall return. The cause to remain forever physically young is short lived. Some people put their identity in building a financial kingdom. Again, we know that all kingdoms are going to fall except the one built by God's hands which lasts forever.

What is your cause? Is it a cause worth living for? Relative to eternity, we have only been given a precious few moments here on earth. How do you really want to spend those precious few moments?

We can look to Jesus and what he lived for to answer the question as to how we want to spend our precious few moments on earth.

Jesus' cause if LIFE. He came that we might have life and have it eternally overflowing. Not only did he come to teach that our physical life of our earthly bodies begins at conception and ends in natural death but that our spiritual life begins at conception and lasts forever. The reason Jesus gave his life for us on the cross is that we might have life forever in heaven. Life is Jesus' demand, cause, intention and desire for us.

How have we not stood for life - how has it not been our cause? If we do not pray how can we gain any meaningful connection with the source of all life and spend our few precious moments on earth sharing that with others? If we do not seek to repair our broken relationships with God and others we choose to separate ourselves from the life of God. If we have eyes even a little bit open we can see how much we have not made our cause the life of God. Consider abortion (There are 33 babies aborted in Oregon every day), infidelity, sexual promiscuity, war, political and economic in justice, starvation, human trafficking, our lack of respect for immigrants, the elderly and those with special needs, etc.

From conception onwards and forever, Jesus wants us to have life. If we grab hold of life we learn it is ever growing and expanding. It becomes bigger, brighter and more beautiful. This growing and expanding into bigger, better and more beautiful is Jesus' cause of life for us. He has entrusted all this to us with our few precious moments on earth. How trustworthy have we been with his life?

Blessed by the BEST,

+Fr. John