We create heaven by living our life here on Earth

 GOSPEL THOUGHTS

19^th Week – Monday

Gospel – Matthew 18: 15-20

 We create heaven by living our life here on Earth

Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

1) Our Understanding of Heaven

Heaven is a place where God and all Holy people live for eternity

It is a place where we are supposed to go after our death

Heaven is a place of All Good and Holy things. We cannot even identify any kind of evil and bad things in heaven 

It is a place (in Spiritual sense and not a physical place) which is given to those who live a holy and good life

This is what we understand about Heaven 

2) Words which are Spoken to Peter also applicable to us

Whatever we bind on earth will be bound in heaven

Whatever we loose on earth will be loosed in Heaven 

These words are very much practical and applicable to our life. It is not only addressed to Peter, rather today these words are addressed and applicable to us 

3) The meaning of Binding

To bind means to tie together

To bind means to stick together 

Binding is a strong cover which  holds the pages of a book together.

This is the ordinary literal meaning of the Word bind or Binding

How do we understand this concept to our life at the Spiritual level 

4) Spiritual Meaning of Binding

Whatever we bind on earth will be bound in Heaven 

It is we who bind the things here on Earth. We can understand this concept in this following way

One who practices the Forgiveness binds the forgiveness to his life. So the Forgiveness which was bound on earth to his life will be bound in Heaven when he/she reaches there 

• So Bind your life with good deeds here on the earth, and such good deeds will be bound in heaven to your eternal life 
• So bind your life with Holiness 
• Bind your life with generosity
• Bind your life with sharing, understanding, humility, sincerity, Justice, Truth, non violence, concern, love, helping, happiness, joy, hard work and with all good values 

So whenever we bind/stick these good values to our life here on this earth, automatically they are bound to our life in Heaven. 

This is the simple logic of whatever we bind on earth will be bound in heaven

5) Whatever we Loose on Earth will be loosed in Heaven

Very often we loose these things here on earth when we live our life. Following are some of the examples

• At times we loose forgiveness. Specially to for others 
• We loose our concern to the needy brothers and sisters
• We loose our generosity and we become selfish
• We loose our helping hand to those who are in really need 
• We loose our humility and simplicity of life 
• We loose the sense of sin and the importance of Holiness 
• We loose the taste for spiritual things and we crave for material things 
• We loose our integrity and good way of life 
• We loose our cheerfulness and joy because of the wrong Choice 

So whatever good values we loose in our life here on earth, will be loosed in Heaven. They will not be found in our look of life 

These pages of good values will not be found in our book of life 

So whatever we loose here on earth will be loosed in Heaven.

6) It is we who Create our own Heaven/Hell and we can't blame God

God has given us the freedom. One is not forced to do anything. But whatever we do will have a similar effect for our life in Heaven

When we bind our life with all good things, the same good values are found in Heavenly or eternal life

Whatever we have lost here on this earthly life, will be loosed in Heaven 

So we create our Heavenly life, while we live our life here on this earth 

Am I ready to bind my life with Good things? 

God bless you and your family. Praying for you and your dear ones.

Fr Maxim D’Souza

Jeppu Seminary

Mangalore