The Choice – What you are going to do, do quickly
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Holy Week
We Bessech your mercy, Lord that…you may make us partakers of life eternal.
Prayer after communion.
I will make you a light to the nations that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.
Isaiah 49: 6
MY STUDENTS who are about eleven years old, worry a lot about “the end of the world” (which was last December 21st, I believe), “the devil,” and “going to hell.” (They are not overly concerned about sin, unless it’s someone else’s.) I assure them that God doesn’t send people to hell, but rather asks, “What choice have you made?” This relieves their minds. It shouldn’t.
We are our choice! (Not vanilla over strawberry, you understand; good over evil – even greater good over good!) Through our little and large decisions, we become the kind of person who will stand in eternal adoration before the face of God… or we don’t. C. S. Lewis remarks that in the end there will be only two kinds of people: radiant saints and unspeakable horrors. And God, loving us, yearning for our love, pouring out grace after grace, leaves the decision to us.
Judas, who may after all have been forgiven, shows us what we are capable of. It may have started with a few petty thefts from the common purse, a sneer from a Pharisee, jealousy of the more favored apostles, or just too much walking in the heat. By small decisions our enthusiastic love may slide into disillusionment.
Today, examine the little or large betrayals that may be keeping you from laying down your life for the Lord.
Sister Paula Gero, CPPS
Sisters of the Precious Blood
Dayton, Ohio
Isaiah 49: 1-6; Psalm 71: 1-4a, 5-6ab, 15, 17; John 13: 21-33, 36-38