I used to think that offering up our suffering was something like spiritual bonus points kinda, I could "offer it up" but it was extra. God loved me and I was going to heaven anyway right?

But is "getting to heaven when we die" the only goal of christianity? Picking the right side, the right beliefs, the right way of thinking; is this what gets us to heaven anyway?

What if we could live in heaven on earth, right here, right now? What if Eternal Life wasn't just a "after we die one day" thing?

Jesus says: Eternal Life is to know You, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent" John 17:3.

I believe that the goal of the Christian Catholic life is to give up sin, endure the cross, and become one with Christ, right here in this world. We do this through sacrifice and surrender, particularly in the eucharist.

In the Eucharist, we unite our crosses to Christ’s sacrifice and allow our suffering to become an offering with Him. We meditatively place our lives, our desires on the altar with the bread and wine. Christ joins our offering to His sacrifice. This offering of ourselves placed with the bread and wine become the Body of Christ, which we receive, renewing our bodies and Christ abides in us.

When we offer our deepest desires to God, even the sinful ones, He heals us from them but we have to endure the trials.

“Wherein you shall greatly rejoice, if now you must be for a little time made sorrowful in divers temptations; that the trial of your faith, much more precious than gold which is tried by the fire, may be found unto praise and glory and honour at the appearing of Jesus Christ.”

This is the faith that made the early Church fearless: Christians so surrendered to Christ, so free from the rule of sin, and so alive in Him that even persecution and martyrdom could not make them turn back.