Regretfully Yours

It is now known that Picasso, early in his career, used many of his drawings as kindling in his room stove on chilly days. Today those drawings would be worth a king's ransom.

It is often only in retrospect that we see the great value of things we have allowed to slip through our fingers. Perhaps our moment of most poignant awareness (and regret) will be the moment after death, when God "will reward each person according to what he has done" (Ps 62:12; see Romans 2:6). In that moment, we'll see countless lost opportunities for growth in holiness and consequent merit (eternal heavenly reward). Every tiny opportunity to do good - which is irretrievable if unused - entails an occasion for growth in holiness as well as its promised hundredfold reward.

"Anyone who gives...a cup of water in my name...will certainly not lose his reward, " promised Jesus (Mk 9:41). Offering a cup of water is a nearly insignificant act of kindness, but when done in his name, it produces a reward to be enjoyed, not for a hundred years or a million, but for eternity!

Why the disproportionate reward? Jesus gives the answer in Matthew 25:34-40: "You who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdon prepared for you,..,.[for] whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." A get-well card or an act of traffic courtesy, a cheerful "Good morning!" or preparing a family meal: These pebbles of human kindness will be transformed into gemstones in the treasuries of heaven!