Christ, Coffee, and Cornfields

   So Kobe Bryant passed away yesterday, along with his daughter and the rest of the passengers on the helicopter that crashed. Understandably, everyone who hears about it is shaken up. He was only 41 years old and his daughter just 13. Very young to be dead. Please pray for them and their families. It definitely made me start thinking about my own mortality and that of my family.   I won't lie; I was never much of a fan of Kobe. Until yesterday, all I knew about him was that he was a really good baller and he cheated on his wife once. I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I judged the heck out of him for that. After his death hit the news, there were some articles that detailed his reversion to the Catholic faith and how he used his wealth and fame to help others. I was totally floored by that, and quite ashamed of myself. He clearly found the mercy of God and embraced it to the fullest. I went to Confession before Mass yesterday, so His mercy was very fresh in my life, a...

  This morning, I was thinking about one of the Gospel readings this week that talked about separating sheep from goats because of what they did for others during their life. Today's first reading discusses how our eternal destination is not determined by whether or not the good we've done outweighs the bad. It's a matter of if you turn away from evil and seek good. It's determined on if you follow Jesus with both your words and your works, or if you turn away from those things. Jesus saved us, and by His Grace the doors of Heaven are opened to us, but we make the choice of if we get to walk through the pearly gates. Luckily, the Lord basically spells out what we need to do. One of the resources He gives us are the Corporal Works of Mercy.   All of the Corporal Works of Mercy have to do with the body. Most of them are pretty straightforward, but there are unique ways to do all of them. I'll go through each of the 7 individually, and how it applies to us today: ...