EDITORIAL ON RADIO MARIA — Father Livio: ‘Friends, Heaven is a gift from God!’
Father Livio Fanzaga, director of Radio Maria, launches a very profound inspiration on this Sunday 10 November 2019 through the radio site, and on social netork: ‘Paradise – the priest writes – is a gift from God!
Let’s read his reflections together.
Dear friends, heaven is a gift from God, but also our merit. Jesus atoned for the sins of all the descendants of Adam, raising them to the dignity of children of God and predestining them to eternal life. Whoever loses eternally certainly cannot blame God “who wants all men to be and come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2: 4). To every man the Almighty grants the help necessary to save himself. To those who do not know it explicitly, grace is given in ways “known to him”.
Those who lose themselves are lost by their own fault, because they wanted to. Whoever saves himself is saved by grace, but with the necessary correspondence of his good will. Matching the grace of salvation and achieving eternal life is the fundamental purpose of life. Everything must be subordinated to this end. Even if in the course of life we had achieved all the goals we had set for ourselves, but this failed, the balance would be catastrophic. Losing the sky means losing God. It is an absolute failure, without the possibility of redemption.
On the contrary, if in terms of temporal objectives life were punctuated by a series of defeats, but eventually we reached the sky, we would have achieved the palm of victory. Whoever enters eternal life is the winner, even if on earth he had to bite the dust. “I will make the victor sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sit with my Father on his throne” (Rev 3:21).
In life we can fail all the goals, but not the final one, for which we were created. The admonition of Jesus leaves no doubt in this regard: “What advantage is there in a man gaining the whole world and losing his soul?” (Mk 8:37)
Your Father Livio
