Increasing Our Desire for God

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus speaks about Purgatory.

He says, “Make friends quickly with your accuser, while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison; truly I say to you, you will never get out till you have paid the last penny.”

Jesus speaks of the price of sin that must be paid off so to speak before we get to heaven. What is the price of sin – the consequences of sin? It is two-fold: Grave sin deprives us of communion with God, making us incapable of eternal life. Jesus removes that with Baptism and later with Confession.

The second consequence of sin is a disordered attachment to the things of this world which manifests itself in the deadly sins: pride, vain ambition, envy, sloth, anger, greed, gluttony and lust. We must be purified of these because they block us from union with God and heaven.

There are two simple ways to remove these disordered attachments – by prayer and by fasting.

If we want to possess God in this life and immediately after death, then the most important thing is to increase your desire for God.

We increase our desire for anything by thinking about it.

So, spend more time in prayer thinking about God and Heaven.  

After that, fast. If we glut ourselves sick with earthly things, we’ll have no appetite left for spiritual things. But, if we cut out or cut back on filling our mouths with food and drink, and our eyes and ears of news and entertainment, our desire for God will grow.

We what changes do you need to make this Lent?