The final verse of today’s first reading (1 Jn 2:12-17) continues a prominent theme of John’s first letter: the vital importance of doing the Lord’s will.  And I use the word “vital” purposefully.  To attain life everlasting we must not “kick against the goad” (Acts 26:14) but prayerfully discern and actively live out God’s will for us.  As members of His body, the Church, each and every person has a vital (there’s that word again) role to play in advancing the kingdom (see 1 Cor 12:12-26).  We are given talents that we are to use in His service and if we bury those talents the consequences are devastating (see Mt 25:14-30).

Today’s passage emphasizes detachment from the world.  Now, God made the world good (see Gen 1) and we should appreciate it and tend to it responsibly.  But we are made for more than this, more that nature — a supernatural never-ending existence.  Let our only true and lasting attachment to the One who made us, to whom we will have to account, and who has prepared a home for us in heaven (see Jn 14:2).