The End Comes First

Keeping our end as heaven to find our way on earth

08/25/2017

Matthew 22:34-40 When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a scholar of the law, tested him by asking, "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" He said to him, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments."

              Back in 1989, Stephen Covey published a ground-breaking book on leadership called The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. In fact, we even teach these habits to our students here at Immaculate Conception School, in a program called “Leader in Me.” Most of Covey’s habits are just principles of common sense, which sadly are not very common these days!

             The second of these seven habits is both profound but also practical. It states: “Begin with the end in mind.” That means before you start something, think about the end result first. Before you start your first day of medical school as a dentist, for instance, you think about those three-day weekends you’ll enjoy (dentists traditionally don’t work on Fridays). Before you go into the seminary to be a priest, you look forward to working only one day a week on Sundays, we have six-day weekends. Dentists have nothing on us priests! When I sit down for supper at parishioner’s home, they remind me, “Fr. John, we have cheesecake for dessert,” and I make sure to leave lots of room! The end of the meal changes how I begin the meal. Before you go on your first date, ask yourself, “Is this the girl I might marry someday?” When we think about the end, we know best how to begin.

                In the gospel today, Jesus uses this second habit to answer a Pharisee’s question. One of the Pharisees, a scholar of the law, asks Jesus: “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” It was not an innocent question; it was a trap. But Jesus eludes the trap and answers him with Covey’s second habit, “begin with the end in mind.” Jesus says: “You shall love the Lord, you God, with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment.” But then Jesus adds, “The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” In other words, the end goal is to love God (the greatest commandment), and that is what you should keep in mind as you love your neighbor; just like I keep that cheesecake in mind as I eat my Caesar salad. The Pharisees had forgotten this habit of highly effective people (that’s why they were not very effective leaders): they tried to love God while despising the people. And in the end they loved neither God nor neighbor. When we think about the end, we will know best how to begin.

              My friends, do you begin with the end in mind? And may I suggest to you that your “end” needs to be heaven, not just earth? Some people begin their first day at work dreaming about retiring early. But should early retirement really be the end? Not at all. Heaven should be the end. That’s why I tell people who work for the Church: the pay is poor, but the retirement plan is out of this world, that is, it’s in heaven! The end comes first. That’s why parents send their kids to Catholic schools: not just so they go to Harvard, but so they go to Heaven! The end comes first. That’s the job of married couples. The fundamental task of a husband and wife is to make sure their spouse gets to heaven. If he or she isn’t in heaven yet, your job isn’t finished. The end comes first. And that’s why we become priests: because we believe that these silly sacrifices we make on earth will be richly rewarded in heaven. The end comes first.

              Can you see how different your whole life becomes when you begin with the end in mind? But you have to remember that your end is heaven. Why? Well, so that the light from heaven can illuminate your path on earth. When we think about the end, we’ll know best how to begin.

Praised be Jesus Christ!