I was coming out from the mall when I noticed a dirty grayish plastic card lying on the pavement. It was a parking card someone had dropped. I picked it up and read the faded printed material on of the card: “500 pesos fine for lost card.”

I tried looking around to see if there was someone luckily tracing his or her way back to find the card to where I was. But no one was in sight. I got into the car and started it. As I engaged the engine, I noticed a lady a few parking spaces away. She appeared to be desperately looking for something inside her car. She leaned sideways, bent backward to check the backseat, and disappeared as if she looked for something in the floor.

She seemed too desperate to notice that I was observing her from the window side. I gently tapped the glass and she turned around quite surprised to see me waving the card before, “Madame, did you happen to drop this?”

Her face suddenly changed from being desperate to total relief. She lowered the window and said, “Thank God, Father. You’re reeeally heaven sent!”

“You’re most welcome, ma’am. Drive safely! And God bless you and your family.”

* * *

Every Christian has received a divine mission to be a witness of God’s love and mercy in the midst of the world. If the person takes this mission to heart, he will always be heaven sent –a gift of God– to those around him. But this means that he or she is personally heaven bent.

To be heaven bent means struggling to overcome all forms of spiritual sloth, complacency, mediocrity and lukewarmness. In the supernatural life, one can never say he has believed, hoped and loved God enough. The gift of every day offers us a great opportunity to renew our desires to take a concrete step towards Heaven, and naturally our ever-increasing desire to bring more souls with us as we advance.

Being heaven bent is rooted on three principal convictions of our faith. Pope Benedict XVI says in a General Audience last 12^th of December, that the first is “the certainty that Jesus has resurrected, and is with the Father and, therefore, is always with us forever. And no one is stronger than Christ (…) Therefore we are more sure and we are not afraid.” Second, is “the conviction that Christ is with me, that from Christ the future world has already began. The future is not something obscure towards which no one is headed.” And third, “the Judge who will come –Judge and Savior– has entrusted us with the task of living in this world following His life. He has given us talents. Thus, our third attitude is: to be responsible toward the world, as brothers, before Christ and, at the same time, with the certainty of His mercy.”

Being heaven bent is expressed in the petition “thy Kingdom come” in two ways. First, that we must strive to establish God’s kingdom here on earth as the mission entrusted to us through our baptism; and second, that we must personally desire to obtain God’s kingdom since He has made us for Himself and for Heaven.

Our Lord Himself, on repeated occasions, referred to how His kingdom is being attacked with violence. St. Mathew writes: “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and men of violence take it by force.” The words “suffer” and “violence” reveal the zeal of the saints to get to Heaven while they are still here on earth.

In more familiar terms, how can we be more heaven bent? Perhaps, these few ideas may help:

• pray Heaven – Don’t think, pray! It isn’t at all selfish to pray about Heaven at least once a day. This helps us to realistically place ourselves in God’s presence. To pray about Heaven isn’t only limited to thinking about the archangels and the cherubs. It’s about asking God in the first place, to give us the grace to get closer to our Heavenly home, our loved ones and others.

• speak Heaven – we must also show in our speech that we are men and women who are aware that their Father God is constantly watching them from above. Thus, we must exude peace, serenity, understanding and a kind word that transmits a “piece of Heaven” to those who hear us. This also requires that we struggle against complaining, criticizing and above all gossiping.

• give Heaven – is there someone that we can give a “piece of Heaven” to? Surely with the many concerns of everyday, we cannot end the day not having been able to serve our neighbor, give thanks, ask for an apology or to forgive, etc.

• receive Heaven – like little children, who are the ones fit for the Kingdom of God, we ought to be daring and excited to receive that daily “heavenly surprise” from our Father God. It may be something material, but more often it comes in supernatural gifts and even sometimes in the shape of the Cross: pain, illness, misunderstanding, etc.

• suffer Heaven – Heaven, as previously stated, may come in the shape of the Cross. After all, it was opened for us through the Key of the Cross on Calvary. Thus we shouldn’t shun the trials and sufferings that life may bring, because they in fact, purify us further from our attachment to worldly things, our past and present offenses against God and neighbor.