By Most Rev. Richard W. Smith, Archbishop of Edmonton

Monday, September 22, 2014

What Really Matters


It was a remarkable phenomenon. Watching the news the other evening I saw a report about people - hundreds and hundreds of people in many cities - camped outside a store for as much as twenty-four hours in order to acquire a brand new version of a smartphone. Now, I like technology as much as the next guy, and I confess to being a little tempted to see what this new phone can do, but really! All that time wasted in a mall, all that energy spent in excited anticipation, for a phone! Moreover, for a phone that we know will soon be set aside in favour of the next upgrade to come along.

The perspective is distorted. This applies to all of us anytime we set our sights on what is passing, when we seek to fulfill our desires with what cannot for long satisfy. It need not be a smartphone; anytime our attention and energy are focused on things like money, possessions, prestige, reputation, the right location and so on, our outlook on what really matters has become terribly skewed.

The Scripture readings proclaimed Sunday serve to refocus our vision, purify our desires, and get our priorities back in correct order (cf. Isaiah 55:6-9; Philippians 1: 20-24, 27; Matthew 20:1-16). Isaiah cries out: "Seek the Lord!!" Seek not some worldly satisfaction that will leave us wanting. Seek, instead, to live in right relationship with God. St. Paul makes this very concrete by speaking of the desires of his own heart. His longing is to be with Christ. As long as the Lord has a purpose for him in this world, he will be content to live in the world and fulfill God's will. But his desire is to be with Christ forever. That's it! To be with Christ forever! For this we have been created; only in this, therefore, will our deepest desire find fulfillment.

How do we pursue the desire? Certainly not by camping out in a shopping mall. To be with Christ forever, living in him in the unity of the Trinity for all eternity, is what we mean by salvation. What Jesus makes clear in his parable of the vineyard labourers is that salvation is God's gift, pure and simple, offered to us out of the infinite depths of his  generosity. It matters not if we come to faith only "late in the day". When one is awakened to the joy of a life of faith is all part of the mystery of God's grace interacting with human freedom. What matters is that God holds out his gift to all equally. There is absolutely nothing we can do to earn it.

What is required is that our lives be open to the working of God's grace within us, so that he can bring about in us the accomplishment of his saving will.


The one thing necessary is to live in union with Christ. May this truth so possess us that our hearts will always be set upon what truly matters, and open to receive his saving grace.