The Gospel for the Competitive
At our Byzantine parish the gospel today was from Matthew where Jesus says that he has come not to abolish the Law but to fulfil it, and thus anyone who encourages the smallest sin will be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven. This reminded me of where elsewhere Jesus says that if you want to be greatest in Heaven you must serve the least.
It's interesting to me that Christ so desires that we imitate him that he offers motivations that sound almost base. In order to aggrandize ourselves - to be great in Heaven - he suggests we perform acts of charity and not lead others to sin. Shouldn't we want to do good out of love for Him and not out of love for ourselves and our position in Heaven? It as if Jesus is not afraid of intermediate stages in the spiritual life. One could say that he shrewdly understands human nature and that in condescending to become human he also condescended to appeal to our natural desire for hierarchy and competition. The desire to avoid Hell or shorten Purgatory are also motivations which seemingly fall short of perfection but have been/are powerful motivators in their effect.
Christ's desire that we exercise faith is also something that must be purely for our benefit. Faith offers God the trust and glory he deserves but in no way requires. Seeing how there is nothing in it for Him, it must be for us that we suffer here below in what Fr. Groeschel once said was proof of the doctrine of Purgatory (he said something along the lines of: "for those who don't believe in Purgatory, this earth isn't Club Med.").
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