5 Steps to Heaven

Heaven is the goal of life. Heaven is transforming union with God. Why wait, why put it off? Nothing less than union with God can satisfy the deep longing of your heart.  Five simple steps to achieve union with God: Do and accept the will of God; flee from sin; develop a deep friendship with Jesus; have a profound interior life; belong to Mary. If we want to be united to God, then we must strive to do His will in everything. But just saying I want to do the will of God is too general, too vague. There are areas in your life you know you are not bringing God into because you are not thinking about it or because you don’t want Him in there. It could be work, relaxation, family, friends, your summer, vacation…You know what you are doing wrong. What are you going to do the make a change? If we want to be united to God then we must flee from every sin, both serious and small sins, and flee from every occasion of sin. Be intentional about identifying and rooting out the deadly vices: pride, envy, anger, sloth, greed, gluttony, lust. we are scandalized by the way other so-called Christians acct; yet we excuse our own bad behavior – or we don’t even notice it. This is case of plank eye. Take the plank out of your own eye before you call out the speck in my eye.  Don’t be discouraged, these things are a reminder of our personal powerlessness and the need for constant surrender to and reliance on Jesus and Mary. The point is not to live a mediocre, lukewarm life. Be determined to reach union with God here! Our Goal is Heaven and Heaven is transforming union with Jesus through the Holy Spirit. We want to say, like St. Paul. “I live now not with my own life but with the life of Christ who lives in me.” Therefore, we seek to know and do the will of Jesus because we want to be united to Him. We accept our own crosses as a way to help Jesus carry His cross and save souls. We flee from sin because sin is a personal offense to Jesus and I don’t want to offend Him. I become virtuous so that I may love Jesus better. I want to go to Mass to enter into the sacrifice and thanksgiving of Jesus and to receive Him in the Eucharist, the closest possible union with Him this side of death. I see prayer as friendship with Jesus; talking to him from the heart, listening to him and thinking about him by reading Scripture and just being with Him. And as my friendship with Him grows, I want others to experience the same happiness meaning and fulfillment, so I act to help others to friendship with Jesus.  To reach heaven we need a profound interior life. Things in this world a good; but nothing is perfect, its not lasting and it can never satisfy our longing for God. And where do we find God? He dwells in your soul. But we never look for him there because we are too busy doing things or too busy with entertainment. We don’t find God in our soul because we are addicted to work, kids, entertainment, news…on and on it goes.  Stop – put away the excuses and distractions. Go into silence. Talk to God from the heart. Read the life of Jesus in the Gospels. Think about him. Be with Him. At first you will go crazy as you suffer withdrawal from your addictions. But don’t escape back into the addictions. Admit to Jesus you are powerless, surrender to Him and beg Him to do it for you.  I you want to reach heaven, then give yourself to Mary. The Holy Spirit brings us into union with God and the Holy Spirit works through Mary. The more you belong to Her, the more the Holy Spirit will unite to Jesus. Develop a personal relationship with Mary – a real concrete friendship and dependence upon her. St. Maximilian Kolbe said: I see Mary everywhere, I see difficulties nowhere. Live continuous friendship with Mary; have complete confidence in her.