Your future beyond retirement

Do you have a retirement plan? Are you putting 10% of every check into savings? If you do that, you may be able to retire at age 65 and then live another 30 years.

Then what? Soon death comes, and you face God and give an account of how well you have followed Jesus Christ in his Catholic Church. You have to share with everyone how you have been generous or greedy in light of God’s saving plan.

I want to be clear, Jesus is not opposed to you planning for your future of retirement, but there is the most important future that most people forget about.

Your “retirement plan” may cover 30 – 40 years, but your life will be judged by God and your reward or lack thereof will last forever and ever and ever. Which plan is more important to you and your family?

Parents, share with your children the reality of what it means to save up, to sacrifice for a greater future reward. It might mean helping them understand what it means to start a college fund, or a missionary trip fund.

What generally happens when you talk about this with your children on a regular basis is that they begin to ma-ture into becoming wise stewards. They recognize that they have God given talents that Jesus wants them to cultivate, and temporal and spiritual goals that will help them grow in virtue and true happiness.

Children who do not have hopes and dreams inspired by God, but live just for the moment or for easy pleasure, tend to wander about deciding not to decide. They miss out on fulfilling God’s adventure of growing in holiness and choosing healthy options that God sets before them.

Jesus Christ wants us to have a financial plan, not to grow rich for the sake of being rich, but to grow in the wealth of being good stewards to advance his Kingdom of love, truth, justice and mercy.

Jesus wants us to avoid hearing at the end of our life, “You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you,” but instead, “Well done good and faithful steward. Come, share your Master’s perfect joy.”

I want to share with you the Biblical understanding of being a good steward. When you receive any kind of monetary gift, the first 10% give back to God. That is called “tithing”. 5% should go to support our parish Church, and then 5% may be divided between the Arch-diocese and other charitable organizations that upholds human dignity in light of God’s supreme dignity.

Personally, I like to give generously to Religious communities of sisters and brothers who pray for my intentions and give their entire lives serving the poor, helping grow Catholic education and meeting the needs of the spiritually vulnerable.

We are also called to tithe, or give 10% of our time back to God. When we look at our 24 hour day, how much time are we spending on things that matter to God? If we spend two hours a day watching t.v., another hour read-

ing the paper or on the internet, compare that to how much time you are spending in prayer, reading the Bible and passing on your Catholic Christian faith.

Do we pray daily to God first thing in the morning and before going to bed for 5 min-utes? Do we read the Bible for 15 minutes? Do we say the Rosary individually or with others for 20 minutes for a deeper conversion and for the conversion of hardened sinners? Do we pray before Mass in preparation to receive the graces poured out, being ready to fully engage in celebrating the Holy Mass for about an hour?

If you do all these things, plus praying before and af-ter meals, that would be a daily average of about one hour and 20 minutes or about 5% of the day God gives you.

If you give another 7 hours a week volunteering as a Catechist, helping the poor, visiting the elderly or sick, or evangelizing, then you are attaining the goal of tithing 10% with respect to the things that matter to God!

I know we Americans love to work hard and play hard. But God wants us to be wise stewards and have a retirement plan which means saving something for the our earthly future, but most importantly God wants each of us to follow Jesus Christ in his Catholic Church which is the sure plan that saves us, and those around us, by storing up the things that matter to God in heaven. Reading this with an open heart is preparing you and your family for Eternal Life – the joy that last forever and ever and ever, without ever getting boring.

The other option is not to be prepared, and the consequences are almost too hard to talk about. Next Sunday, however, Jesus will talk about it, plus heaven and purga-tory. If it matters to God, it matters to us. Let’s continue to learn about Jesus Christ who promises salvation to his faithful followers.

Next weekend Fr. James Notebaart will be presiding at all the weekend Masses.

Peace In Christ, Fr. Thomas McCabe