***BONUS Meditation Hymn at the end from St. Mary's beautiful choir***

In every age, man is tempted to believe that the world is enough. He builds cities of glass and steel, sculpts gods in his own image, and fills his days with noise and novelty—yet his soul remains restless. As Saint Augustine so rightly said famously, our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee. He walked in the barren desert of lavish imperial courts and indulged in the finest wines of ancient Rome and found it wanting. To live for this world alone is to walk in a beautiful prison: adorned, yes—but still a cage.

The Christian life begins with a startling reversal. It tells us not merely to look forward, or even inward, but upward. Sursum corda—lift up your hearts! This call that we say during the Eucharistic prayer, echoing through every Mass, is no poetic flourish. It is a scream and a command from above that we are meant for more.  It is the very axis upon which the soul must turn if it is to be free. Does not every human heart desire frustratingly more? 

Our Lord this Sunday in the Gospel Reading is crystal clear: “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.” (Cf. Luke 12:15). Does this not ring true? How fresh to hear this teaching from the lips of Jesus, compared to the putrid air that we’ve all been forced to breathe. 

For heaven is not a sentimental escape from earth—it is the meaning of earth. To aim for heaven is not to despise the world, but to see it rightly. A man who knows the stars walks straighter on the road. Indeed, it is only by contemplating eternity that we begin to understand time.

The great English convert from atheism to Catholicism, G.K. Chesterton, with his usual cheerful thunder, reminds us that the saints are not the ones who escape reality, but the ones who embrace it with such vigor that they can laugh even at death. They have chosen the one thing that cannot be shaken—the eternal love of God. That my friends, is why we are created, why we come to Mass, and why we worship Jesus Christ. And so, we must ask: Where is our treasure? If it is buried in the shifting sands of fashion, fortune, or fleeting pleasure, we shall be buried with it. But if it is anchored in Christ—who is seated at the right hand of the Father—then we are already rising, even now.

Let the world chatter; let it parade its vanities, for as we heard in the first reading today, "vanity of vanities! All things are vanity! … For what profit comes to man from all the toil and anxiety of heart with which he has labored under the sun? All his days, sorrow and grief are his occupation; even at night his mind is not at rest.” (Cf. Ecclesiastes 2:22). 

We are called higher! The Christian smiles, not in scorn, but in serene defiance—for his eyes are fixed on something greater. We are not made for dust, but for glory. Heaven is not far—it is our home. We must not forget it.