At the peak of his SPIRITUAL EXERCISES, St. Ignatius reminds us that love is shown not in words but in deeds.  A line from a recent country western song says it well too:  "Love isn't something that we have, it's something that we do!"  Because we live in a world of false or exaggerated claims, empty promises, words and images that do not deliver the happiness they seem to promote, we all need to hear and reflect upon the solid words and apt parable of Jesus in today's Gospel.  We all need to be reminded that DOING good and putting love into PRACTICE is what really counts.  Good intentions and fine words are mere sand, especially when compared with the solid bedrock of love in action.  Only those who actually DO God's will participate and live fully in the household of God Who is love.

This is not to say that our deeds are what really matter most.  Not at all.  The letter from Paul to Timothy clearly states that we are saved by the patience of God made manifest in Jesus Christ.  God's mercy is what really matters, for none of us can save ourselves from our own selfishness, foolishness, sinfulness.  Only God's faithful love, incarnated in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, can give us the heart's superabundance of love that enables us to be faithful and fruitful.  "Without Me, you can DO nothing," Jesus tells us; but with Him, as St. Paul said so well, we can DO all things through the One Who strengthens us.  When our hearts are made right, when they are filled with the goodness and fulness of God's love, then we too are enabled to do the work of love, as Jesus did.  "Amen, Amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works I do, and will do greater ones than these." (John 14, 12)

Putting the words of Jesus and Paul together, we get a clear picture of the right order of our spiritual  lives.  First comes God's splendidly and magnanimously merciful and faithful love, then comes belief or faith (which enables us to share in God's fidelity), then comes the fruitfulness of lives replete with good deeds and all the works of love.  And so we have a piece of the Rock, as it were, and then nothing can separate us from the Love of God poured out in Christ Jesus Our Lord.

Thus, we already have everlasting life, and, finally, we will enter eternal joy.  "To the King of ages, the immortal, the invisible, the only God, be honor and glory, forever and ever! Amen.