Our Lord's third promise concerns perseverance. "I go to prepare a place for you. And if I shall go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to Myself, that where I am, you also may be." In another place He had given the same promise when He told them: "He who perseveres to the end, he shall be saved."
Eternal salvation means reaching heaven at last. Now, heaven is a state of perfect happiness. In the building up of heaven, God, the divine Architect, employed omniscience, omnipotence, and infinite love.
Because He is omniscient, knowing all things, God cannot be deceived in deciding what is to constitute perfect happiness. The divine mind exercises itself on the problem and understands just exactly what to exclude and what to include, so as to ensure that the result will be perfect happiness. Because God is omnipotent, no obstacle can impede the accomplishment of His plan. We make plansto build or to travelbut our plans are foiled, by lack of funds, by a dispute amongst the workmen, by illhealth or death. But when an omnipotent God undertakes to see His plan through, there is absolutely no person or thing to impede His progress. Lastly, an infinitely loving God, having built up this abode of perfect happiness, flings it wide open and bids His children take possession.
"Possess" is a strong word. It implies security of tenure. In this life my hold on any treasure is very tenuous. I may have good health today and in a week hence be hanging between life and death. I may have friends whom I love around me now, and death may tear them from me at any time. But once I attain to the joys of heaven there is nothing that can, by any conceivable circumstances, endanger the security of my possession. "I have found Him Whom my soul loveth; I have held Him fast and I will not let Him go."
It is St. Paul who tells me this time about the insufficiency of words to express the reality. "Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive what things God hath prepared for those who love Him."
God, in His wisdom, does not guarantee perseverance. But He does promise us all the means, and in generous measure, which are necessary in order to lay hold of this prize. Perseverance does not necessarily mean that we shall not at times stumble, and even fall badly, on the road. It implies that we never stay down. If a man drives his car with the intention of reaching New York, he perseveres, even if he gets a puncture, even if he damages the windshield and cuts his hand; he perseveres provided he reaches the goal, and the credit due to him is all the greater if he refused to be beaten by difficulties.
Help me, dear Lord, to begin each day with a fresh effort, remembering Your promise, recognizing that each day I am drawing nearer the shore. The struggles of yesterday are gone forever, and in Your consideration for my weakness You ask me to persevere only for one day at a time. The last day and the last effort cannot be far distant, even at the longest, and the joy of the homecoming will be worth all. Mary, remember me, now and at the hour of my death.