“Without cost you have received, without cost you are to give.” (Mt 10:8)
Christ constantly calls us to follow him, to be His disciple. In fact, God has been calling us to follow his ways since the beginning. God laments, over and over in the Old Testament that Israel does not follow His ways. It is clear that if we want eternal happiness we are called to live like Christ.
When Christ sends his apostles, he instructs them in what this means. Preach that “the kingdom of Heaven is at hand” - that God has come to save His people. We are to cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, and drive out demons - to cure our sick and dead hearts from sin, to welcome those cast out, and to root out evil, and yes the occasional demon, from our lives, and to help others do all this too.
Most importantly, though, Christ says, “Without cost you have received, without cost you are to give.”
How often do we refuse God because the cost is too high? If we follow Christ, we see that He held nothing back. Blood and Water poured out of His side to give birth to the Church. He suffered crucifixion to save us.
Meanwhile, we claim to want Heaven, but some of us aren’t willing to try and find Mass on vacation. We aren’t willing to serve a night at the Lord’s Diner, or spend an hour a week at adoration, because we’re “busy.” We won’t contribute to the church because reasons, and we don’t join in the community events at church because they “aren’t Catholic enough” or “eww those people” - and yes these are actual things I’ve been told.
I’m sorry if this sounds harsh, but these are not the behaviors that get us to Heaven. Our parish is a community, and communities make demands on us. As a parish, we must seek to cure the sicknesses of sin within us. We must bring back those dead in faith. We must open our hearts to the strangers, the newcomers, and the people at other Mass times. We must give evil no foothold here.
Some say the Church asks too much. We do not. We ask for everything, and this is still not enough to repay God for our salvation. The best we can do is follow him and try, because “Without cost you have received, without cost you are to give.”