Jesus listed twelve things that would keep people from Heaven: unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, and folly. The acronym UTMAG M.D. LEBAF helps us remember the Deadly Twelve so that we can avoid such thoughts, words, and deeds.
We should not let ourselves get bored reading lists of things that actively want to destroy us. The more familiar we are with them, the better we can avoid them and their consequences.
Once we make up our minds to avoid unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, and folly, we want to see if there’s anything else to be avoided.
Sure enough, Today’s Reading, II Cor, 6:1-11, tells us of a few more things that will keep us out of Heaven:
“Do you not know that the unjust will not inherit the Kingdom of God?
Do not be deceived;
neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers
nor boy prostitutes nor sodomites nor thieves
nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor robbers
will inherit the Kingdom of God.
That is what some of you used to be;
but now you have had yourselves washed, you were sanctified,
you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ
and in the Spirit of our God.”
So, we can add fornication, idol worshiping (which is a far broader category than it would first appear, including most everything that we see in the media), boy prostitutes, sodomites, drunkenness, and slandering to the UTMAG M.D. LEBAF acronym.
Fornication has become so common that many don’t, and won’t, even consider that they may be living in a salvation-stopping sin. Obedient Catholics understand that sexual relationships outside of Church-approved marriage is fornication. That’s the way it is.
Others who let themselves be made short-sighted by sex, stay in sins involving boy prostitutes and sodomy.
Drunks and slanderers round out those who are bared.
So, we need to update UTMAG M. D. LEBAF to add F(fornicators), IW (idol worshipers), BP (boy prostitutes), S (sodomites), D (drunkenness), and S (slanderers) to the list of the lost. FIWBPSDS. There seem to be, in combining the lists, 18 things that will keep our souls from gaining access to Heaven as we travel from here to Judgment.
What 18 things keep people out of Heaven? UTMAG M.D. LEBAF and FIWBPSDS. Any suggestions to be passed on that will help us remember what to avoid will be helpful!
Every time we drive a car, even on a trip of a few miles, we avoid far more than 18 fatal accidents with nearby telephone poles, oncoming vehicles, trees, ditches, and other life-destroying dangers.
Surely, we can spend the time between now and Judgment avoiding the 18 truly fatal collisions with our souls and that which corrupts them.
