O God, who have prepared for those who love you
good things which no eye can see,
fill our hearts, we pray, with the warmth of your love,
so that, loving you in all things and above all things,
we may attain your promises,
which surpass every human desire.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

The Collect for Mass of the 20^th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year C) teaches a number of important truths, three of which deserve emphasis.

First, the prayer has an eschatological focus: “what God has prepared for those who love” Him. The contemporary tendency to shortchange eschatological questions, in the world and in the Church, is contrary to common sense; intentional action begins by figuring out where you want to end. What is your destination or goal? Because if you don’t know where you want to go, you are not likely to get there.

The Ascension assures us that Jesus has gone before us with a purpose: “I go to prepare a place for you” (Jn 14:3). The proximity this year of this Sunday to the Assumption underscores that truth. Mary is already the first recipient of that preparation, a reality that will be celebrated again in the Feast of the Queenship of Mary August 22.

The entire text is a paraphrase of 1 Cor 2:9: “Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man what great things God has prepared for those who love Him.”

Second, that eschatological promise of “great things” is contingent: it is “for those who love Him.” Heaven does not hand out participation awards; as St. Paul reminds us, one has to run the race and fight the good fight (2 Tm 4:7). The eligibility criterion for receiving those great things is spelled out in the Great Commandment: loving God above all things and in all things — which includes one’s neighbor. It is reinforced everyday by devout Jews who begin the day with the Shema Yisrael (Dt 6:4-5): “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” Easier said than done, but it is the acid test of faith. Why of faith? Because there will always be an ultimate in everyman’s life, the one reality to which all else is subordinate. It will either be the true God or a false one, but there will always be some deity a man worships.

Third, God’s promises “surpass every human desire.” We forget that man has a limitless capacity to want. Shania Twain summed it up in her song, “Ka-Ching”: “all we ever want is more/a lot more than before.” The problem is that our thirst will not be satiated at “the nearest store.”

The important thing to realize is that this desire is not inherently bad. It is intended, in fact, to lead us to God. Why? Because every human good that we receive, as much as it may momentarily satisfy us, ultimately always comes up short. There’s always something lacking, something more that we want. Properly understood, that desire for more should lead us to God, our Highest Good, our Ultimate Want. The problem is when we allow ourselves to get caught in the midst of temporal goods, to forget that they can also be tempting and distracting, leading us away from God to lesser gods. That’s the danger of goods, be they our own riches or the largesse of the welfare state. Let’s kept our sights set on where our heart should be set, as St. Augustine assured us: “Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee” (Confessions, 1, 1,5).