Tag: choice

Choose to Live

“I call heaven and earth today to witness against you:
I have set before you life and death,
the blessing and the curse.
Choose life,” Deuteronomy 30: 19-20

“I have set before you life and prosperity, death and doom.” Moses will experience this soon, as he will be unable to enter the promise land. The choices we make in life everyday are about life and death. Is that too dramatic? Yes and no. Yes because we are bound to fail but God can always take our crooked paths and straighten them. No, because we have to choose to say yes to God, daily.  

Are we making decisions based on God’s will or our will? Are we allowing God to penetrate those dark places in our hearts and mind and illuminate them? Are we allowing him to transform us? We live in a world where every desire seems available to us, every need you could have should be met, everyone has a talent or gift displayed on social media. People seem to be living very much abundantly…but it is all distorted if those gifts, talents and desires are not orientated towards God.

Let us pause and think of our current appetites, wants and needs. Are they of God? Or is it of greed? Lust? Desperation? Do they bring glory and honor to God? Or am I ready Lord to put it to death? To surrender what I think is life and give it to you? This is what Jesus calls us to do, “daily.” To give up our trappings, what we believe are necessities, so that He can gives us the gift of a full life.  “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”(LK 9:23) Jesus asks us to put death those things that get in the way of our joy, loving the lord.

I can admit that this is the first time I have read this sentence and noticed the word, “daily.” Daily, is not only during lent, it is every day. Every day we must choose the abundant life that God has imagined, created and laid out for us…even if we cannot see it or even feel it on some days. There is hope in every new day. Say yes again. It is not always easy because God’s timing is His, and my way seems faster and easier, but no decision I have made without Him, outside of Him, was better.

“Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, by loving the LORD, your God, heeding his voice, and holding fast to him, for that means life to you.” (Deut. 30: 20) Everyday allow yourself the space and time to ask the Holy Spirit for wisdom and bring those decisions (big or small) before the Lord. Allow God to transform your will so that it is conformed to His will for you. Choose to live and hold fast to him, for He is your life. 

Lord today we pray for our conversion, daily. For our hearts, ears and mind to be transformed by your love and wisdom. That we put to death, daily, the disordered appetites and thoughts that prevent us from loving you with our whole life. In Jesus’ name we pray amen.

One of these choices is not like the other

+

As an actress, I have frequented circles where the pursuit of life, love and the absolute virtue of self-expression reign supreme: Live your truth. If it’s you and it makes you happy, go for it. The universe is looking out for you.

These messages are found not only in my artist circles—they saturate all of our relativistic society and egalitarian culture, where nothing is objectively true and all is subjective; where no one or no One can be Lord over the “almighty” individual. It is all too clear who is the ruler of this world (hmm…does this make anyone want to shout the conquering cry of the Angel of Victory?)

This is in no way to stand in judgment over any colleagues or friends—far from it. I too lived this way during my “cherry picking” days and had some problems with claiming absolutes, especially where the Church was concerned. Without being rooted in my identity as a daughter of the Most High or knowing about the infinite treasures and wisdom of Holy Mother Church in a meaningful way, it was all too easy for me to think that I was doing alright as long as I was a “good person;” that I had my life over here and could put God someplace else to visit when it was convenient.

Slowly, mercifully, over the years of deeper conversion, the Lord convicted me. He opened my heart to the immensity of His unique, personal love for me (and for each of us). He opened my eyes to the spiritual reality and battle of our existence, where there is indeed an absolute choice to be made.

Moses says, in no uncertain terms:

Today I have set before you
life and prosperity, death and doom.
If you obey the commandments of the LORD, your God,
which I enjoin on you today,
loving him, and walking in his ways,
and keeping his commandments, statutes and decrees,
you will live and grow numerous,
and the LORD, your God,
will bless you in the land you are entering to occupy.
If, however, you turn away your hearts and will not listen,
but are led astray and adore and serve other gods,
I tell you now that you will certainly perish…

Easy enough choice, right? When looking at the eternal bliss of Heaven or the infernal horrors of Hell, who would willingly choose death over life? Yet that is the trap so many of us fall into when we willfully turn our hearts away from God for whatever reason, refusing to listen to the Truth—the Truth of His love for us, and the responsibility we have as His children. And not only listen to the Truth, but to joyously and actively choose to obey.

In the Gospel today, Jesus shares with His intimate friends a harrowing picture of the sacrifice He will make for the salvation of sinners. Knowing the infinite value of our souls and the passing temptations of this world, Christ then invites us all to make that choice to deny ourselves, daily take up our cross, and follow Him; to choose eternal life over eternal death. Today we celebrate the Feast of Saints Perpetua and Felicity, who give witness to this in a powerful way. As St Paul writes in Romans 8:18–

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

In this life, we should strive for nothing short of sanctity—Heaven is the realm of Saints and that is our true land. This is something I have to constantly remind myself of whenever I’m tempted to be “led astray and adore and serve other gods:”

When I care more for the opinions of others and it feels easier to keep my mouth shut in conversation rather than defend my Catholic faith and beliefs; when I let talk venture into uncharitable gossip because it’s all in “fun;” when I let jealousy poison my opinion of another person rather than seeing that person, and the gifts He has bestowed upon me, through the eyes of God; when I’d rather scroll through social media or watch Netflix rather than pray with Scripture or the Rosary.

Every day in countless small ways and in all sorts of places—at work, on the train, on the streets—the Lord invites us to die to ourselves, to love Him, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments. We can turn away from Him, piercing His Heart with our refusal, or we can turn to Him with our whole heart.

I have come to relish the moments when someone asks about the Divine Mercy image at my dressing room table, or notices my scapular peeking out, or learns that I attend daily Mass and bi-weekly confession (working up to weekly, Padre Pio!). Yes, even the moments of wide-eyed disgust when passersby see me, a young woman of color, standing outside Planned Parenthood in prayer. These moments of encounter open the door to astonishment and plant the seeds of grace.

The world around us is hungry for Truth and real Love. The universe and the gods that we make in our own image will never satisfy our deepest desire for God.

When we ask for the grace to live boldly and joyfully the proclamation that JESUS CHRIST IS LORD, that there is no other, and that we were made for so much more than what the world offers—we will receive it.

When our seemingly ordinary days are colored by the extraordinary fact that Our Lord’s sacrifice and His infinite love for us, that Heaven is real (as is Hell), and that we have a choice to make—who knows how many souls we can win for the Lord?

Let us join with the universal Church in prayer for the Holy Father’s intention this month–that Christian communities, especially those who are persecuted, feel that they are close to Christ and have their rights respected.

Be faithful. Be authentic. Most of all, be not afraid. The victory is His.

Choose life, then.

Choose life.

Sts. Perpetua and Felicity, pray for us!