IF WE CHOOSE…:
Scripture: “Before everyone are life and death, good and evil, whichever they choose will be given them.” – Sirach 15:17
Catechism of the Catholic Church: “Freedom is the power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, to do this or that, and so to perform deliberate actions on one’s own responsibility. By free will one shapes one’s own life. Human freedom is a force for growth and maturity in truth and goodness; it attains its perfection when directed toward God, our beatitude.” – CCC 1731
Brothers and sisters, the readings from this past weekend (Feb. 14-15) have touched me to take the opportunity to step back and analyze myself – and the choices I’ve made prior to giving my heart – my life to God. Have I been a good person; have I helped those in need when I could; did I love those I didn’t like; did I love always? And to borrow the last line from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s poem, “What Is Success,” did one life breathe easier because I have lived?
When put into that perspective brothers and sisters, I honestly don’t know if someone’s life was made easier because I was in it. I do know, after removing emotion from the various situations throughout my life, that I was not always the best son to my parents, I was not always the best brother to my siblings, and I was not always a good friend to my friends.
But now, my humility reminds me that throughout my past, there were more times than not that I didn’t care if I hurt other people’s feelings. As long as I was able to get my way – to get what I wanted, I didn’t look back. As I’ve said before, my mantra was, “Sworn to fun and loyal to none.” And, I never cared what others thought of me; I would say and do what I wanted, when I wanted – with no regard to whom I was speaking to.
However, as we have all learned by now (hopefully), that God has a way to humble us for our own good – for the good of our souls. Sometimes, it can be painful. When we heed His words – His will, it is called humility. Brothers and sisters, when we refuse to humble ourselves, and the Lord must humble us, it is called humiliation. Sadly, many of us don’t respond appropriately until humiliation is present. Even then, we struggle to say, “I’m sorry.”
In addition to the scripture passage above, Sirach also said, “No one does the Lord command to act unjustly, to none does He give license to sin.” All this means, is that God doesn’t give out “Free Passes.” With our free will we can choose to do what we want, but that doesn’t mean that God approves of our behavior. What we choose to do in this life – what we choose to sow in the world, we will be repaid accordingly in the next.
It is true, brothers and sisters, that God love us; He loves us unconditionally. However, He also judges us. And He judges us based on what is truly in our hearts. It is also fair to say that what we truly hold in our hearts, eventually comes out in our actions and words. We may be able to fool others for a time, but eventually our true self is put on display for all to see.
Eventually, others will see what God can already see – that we aren’t always the good and kind and loving Christians we claim to be. And when I realized this, brothers and sisters, I understood that I had to be humiliated in order to rebuild my relationship with the Lord. I realized that if I didn’t choose Him, if I didn’t choose Him each and every day, I would be lost.
That is why I live and hope for what has been promised in St. Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians: “Eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who live Him.” This is why I choose Him, and I will spend Lent with Him. I only wish that I had chosen Him much sooner.
“If you believe what you like in the Gospels, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself.” – St. Augustine
