Choices

If the essence of God could be captured in one thought, it would be that of sacrificial love. God has power. God has knowledge. God is the source of all truth and all holiness. God is sacrificial love. For love to exist there has to be a choice. If I were forced to love you, I could not love you.

The angels were created out of love, but for the purpose of service. They were created with full knowledge of who God is. They did not have the choice to love or not love God. They were given the choice to serve God or serve themselves.

God went a different route when he created man. Man was created with no knowledge of who God is. God then courts us, revealing himself to us, so that we come to know and love him. God woos his beloved in the hope that we may come to love him as he loves us. The choice is always ours to make.

During the season of Lent and throughout holy week we will be given a number choices to make. Each choice is intended to draw us ever closer to God. Many of these choices will go seemingly unnoticed by us. In the end, the choices we make during this time will determine where we will spend eternity.

It all begins with the feeding of the 5000. Jesus miraculously multiplies the loaves and the fish to feed a multitude of people. This was done as a preconfiguration of the Sacrament of the Eucharist he would shortly institute. Jesus went off with the Twelve to rest and pray. The people followed because they longed for more.

This begins the bread of life discourse where Jesus tells us that his body is true food and his blood true drink and if we do not eat his flesh and drink his blood that we have no life within us. Jesus had just given them a preview on how he intended to do this, but they could not understand. Unable to accept his teaching, the people left him in mass numbers.

Jesus was heralded as a king as he entered into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. The people looked for him to fulfill the messianic prophecy to return and free Israel from the occupying Romans. Many became disillusioned and disappointed when he didn’t fulfill this prophecy in the way they expected. Their hearts grew cold as even more turned from him.

Then came the night in the garden when Jesus was betrayed with a kiss by one of his closest friends. When the temple guards seized him the rest of his inner circle fled, leaving him alone and rejected. His closest friend, Peter, publicly denied ever knowing him. Pilate presented Jeus to the people, giving them the opportunity to have him released. The people chose Bar Abbas instead. Jesus was finally crucified along side two other criminals, one to his left and one to his right.

The Triduum is the most powerful three days in all of human history. It starts with a simple Passover meal. Jesus teaches the Twelve how to serve each other sacrificially by washing their feet. He establishes the priesthood and institutes the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist. He fulfills what he began with the multiplication of the loaves and the fish, and revealed to his disciples how he intended to feed us with his body and blood throughout all time. We are given the choice to eat of the flesh of the son of man each time we attend a Catholic Mass. We can take him at his word, or we can walk away from him because this teaching is too difficult for us to accept.

As we stand amid the crowd when Pilate offers the choice on who to release, we get the choice to make Jesus the Lord of our lives or if we want the world to be lord over us. Do we accept Jesus into our hearts or do we demand Bar Abbas with the rest of the crowd?

On Good Friday we are presented with the most important decision we will ever have to make. In a rock quarry just outside of the city gate, Jesus was hung upon a cross. He took upon himself the punishment for the sins of all humanity and offered up for us greatest of all sacrifices. On his right and his left were two men who were also being executed for their crimes. The good thief turned towards Jesus and sought forgiveness. The other thief turned from Jesus, mocking him.

On the cross of Christ hung the salvation and redemption of the world. Through this sacrifice the gates of heaven were opened and the offer of eternal life with God in heaven was given. This is an offer extended to us through sacrificial love and because it is an offering of love it comes with a choice.

The cross of the good thief represents God’s offer of mercy. To die upon that cross means to have a turning of the heart back towards God. One must be truly sorry for the sins they have committed. One needs to be contrite and ask for God’s forgiveness. That forgiveness depends on our willingness to forgive each other. Lord, forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us. If we want 100% of God’s mercy, we have to be willing to give 100% of our mercy.

The cross of the other thief represents the Justice of God. If we choose not to turn to the Lord with a contrite heart and choose love of self over love of God, we will receive God’s justice for what we have done in our lives. We will be given that for which we deserve. Hell is our final destination.

We get to choose which cross we get to die upon. Our choice becomes binding at our deaths. We will be asked one question when we are called to stand before our Lord at the end of our days.

“Do you love me?”

More important than our answer to that question will be the cross that we bear when asked it. Jesus said to deny ourselves, pick up our crosses, and follow him. We will be found carrying the cross of mercy for the love of God or will we be found being the cross of love of self and worldly things.

That is a choice only you can make.