Many years ago, Diana Ross sang the theme song from Mahogany that asked some poignant questions:  “Do you know where you’re going to?  Do you like the things that life is showing you?  Where are you going to?  Do you know?  Do you get what you’re hoping for? When you look behind you there’s no open doors.  What are you hoping for? Do you know?  Once we were standing still, in time. Chasing the fantasies and feeling all nice.  You knew how I loved you, but my spirit was free.  Laughing at the questions that you once asked of me.  Now looking back at all we’ve had.  We let so many dreams just slip through our hands.  Why must we wait so long, before we see?  How sad the answers to those questions can be.”  Foolishly, we often neglect to think of the future and define what our goals, our hopes, our dreams, our visions are for the future.  We aimlessly waste our time away going nowhere.  We live our lives as if there is no purpose for our life and no meaning to be discovered.  One day we discover that life has passed us by and our lives are empty, with nothing to show for the time that we have spent so foolishly.  All that is left are sad regrets.

    What if you were asked to name your goals and the direction that you want your life to take?  Do you have meaningful hopes and dreams for life?  I would guess that if people were able to name their goals that many of them would be things in this world only.  People dream about fame, fortune, power, and a variety of worldly pleasures that they would like to experience.  We can spend our lives chasing after these worldly dreams but will they fulfill us?  Too often our hopes and dreams are small and limited to this life only.  Another song from years past by Peggy Lee tackled this existential dilemma:  “I know what you must be saying to yourselves if that’s the way she feels about it why doesn’t she just end it all?  Oh, no, not me I’m in no hurry for that final disappointmentfor I know just as well as I’m standing here talking to you, when that final moment comes and I’m breathing my last breath, I’ll be saying to myself:  Is that all there is, is that all there is?  If that’s all there is my friends, then let’s keep dancing.  Let’s break out the booze and have a ball if that’s all there is.”  A sad ending to a meaningless existence!  Today St. Paul warns us:  “If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all.” (1Cor 15,19)  The prophet Jeremiah also has words of warning for us:  “Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the Lord.  He is like a barren bush in the desert.” (Jer 17,5)

    Our hope is not meant to be for this life only.  Our hope is in the Lord, in eternal life and in the resurrection to come.  The prophet Jeremiah wisely counsels us:  “Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose hope is the Lord.  He is like a tree planted beside the waters.” (Jer 17,7)  St. Paul also directs our hopes to the resurrection:  “For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things and I consider them so much rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him…to know him and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by being conformed to his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” (Phil 3,8-11)  Christian hope is a great hope for eternal life in a world made new in Christ.  For the disciple of Jesus, our goals and our hopes and dreams are not for the passing things of this life alone but for the things that bear the weight of eternity.

    Even though there may be disappointments and sufferings in this passing life, that is not “all there is”.  There is more.  We set our eyes and our hearts on the glory to be revealed.  St. Paul affirms for us:  “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us.” (Rom 8,18)  The beatitudes that Jesus reveals to us point to our future glory in heaven.  The one who is “blessed” is the one who has set his goals on the things of heaven.  Even though this life may offer only poverty, hunger and weeping, we do not despair, rather, we can, “Rejoice and leap for joy on that day.”  For, “Behold, your reward will be great in heaven.” (Luke 6,23)  Blessed is the one who sets their goals on the things of heaven and the eternal life of glory and “woe to you” who hope for the things of this life only.  Do you know where you are going to?  Make your goal eternal life and the “more” that comes from a life lived in Christ Jesus.