The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today present a dualistic choice that establishes the tension in living on a journey to full life through relationship with God.
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| The Way of Life |
The reading from the Book of Deuteronomy presents the choice Moses puts before Israel.
See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity1
The theme of the Two Ways in Psalm 1 expresses that the wise through their good actions will experience rootedness and life, and the wicked, rootlessness and death.
* [Psalm 1] A preface to the whole Book of Psalms, contrasting with striking similes the destiny of the good and the wicked. The Psalm views life as activity, as choosing either the good or the bad. Each “way” brings its inevitable consequences. The wise through their good actions will experience rootedness and life, and the wicked, rootlessness and death.2
In the Gospel from Luke, Jesus teaches the Conditions of Discipleship include taking up our cross daily as He asks: “What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves?”
* [9:23] Daily: this is a Lucan addition to a saying of Jesus, removing the saying from a context that envisioned the imminent suffering and death of the disciple of Jesus (as does the saying in Mk 8:34–35) to one that focuses on the demands of daily Christian existence.3
Angela Maynard comments that nobody gets through this life without some kind of suffering. Some days there are disappointments, other days loss and the accompanying pain and suffering. Many of the saints and holy people have concluded that pain is a source of purification or a way one can become stronger. For today, let's allow ourselves some time for quiet reflection. When faced with crosses, do I fall apart, give up, or do I rise up, shoulder my crosses with courage, keeping in mind that Jesus shares the load?
Suffering is nothing by itself. But suffering shared with the passion of Christ is a wonderful gift, the most beautiful gift, a token of love.” -- St. Teresa of Calcutta
“If God causes you to suffer much, it is a sign that He has great designs for you, and that He certainly intends to make you a saint. And if you wish to become a great saint, entreat Him yourself to give you much opportunity for suffering; for there is no wood better to kindle the fire of holy love than the wood of the cross, which Christ used for His own great sacrifice of boundless charity.” -- St. Ignatius of Loyola4
Don Schwager quotes “God calls us to conversion,” by Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 AD.
"God calls us to correct ourselves and invites us to do penance. He calls us through the wonderful gifts of his creation, and he calls us by granting time for life. He calls us through the reader and through the preacher. He calls us with the innermost force of our thoughts. He calls us with the scourge of punishment, and he calls us with the mercy of his consolation." (excerpt from Commentary on Psalm 102, 16)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on Deuteronomy 30:15-20 shares that following the Lord requires choosing. Each reading today says so. Moses gives his farewell address to the Israelites, and his main point is that if they want to receive God’s life, they have to choose to follow and obey him (Deuteronomy 30:15-20). Jesus predicts his passion and gives the disciples a list of things they need to choose to do: deny themselves, take up their crosses daily, and follow him (Luke 9:23). Even today’s psalm describes the blessed people who follow the Lord—they choose not to follow the counsel of the wicked; they delight in God’s law. As a result, they are like a well-watered, fruitful tree (Psalm 1:1-3).
The same is true for us: choosing to follow God gives us life. So go ahead and spend a little more time in prayer or Scripture reading. Attend your parish’s Stations of the Cross. Give to the poor, whether you talk with the homeless man on the street corner or spend an afternoon preparing meals at a shelter. Wash your family’s dirty dishes or pick up after your loved ones with a smile.
This might sound like a spiritual to-do list. But there’s more to it than that. As you take more time to pray, you may notice a sense of joy welling up in you, even in difficulty. As you reach out to give to the needy, you may get a clearer glimpse of Jesus’ love for the poor. As you choose to serve your family even when you’re aggravated, you may discover a new sense of peace. Every decision to follow Jesus nourishes your soul like a river watering a tree (Psalm 1:3).
So rely on God’s grace and say yes to him. As you journey with Jesus through Lent, you’ll start resembling him more in your thoughts, words, and actions. That’s what his life does in you!6
Friar Jude Winkler reviews the dualistic choice of the Two Ways as he concedes our daily path often is in grey areas that are not so black and white. In the Gospel, Jesus resolves our tension of the Two Ways in the irony of taking up our cross. Friar Jude reminds us that the Way of the Cross is to abandon our self serving interests to give life for others.
The tool of the Enneagram may help our service of others as we come to appreciate how the Essential Nature of people may be recaptured living as their True Self, blessed by God. Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, shares Don Richard Riso and Russ Hudson explanation of how Nines reconnect with their Essential nature or True Self.
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(see Ash Wednesday blog entry for definition of the terms Holy Ideas, Virtues, and Passions). Ultimately Nines reclaim their Essential nature by confronting their Basic Fear of losing connection and by letting go of the belief that their participation in the world is unimportant—that they do not have to “show up.” They realize that the only way to truly achieve the unity and wholeness they seek is not by “checking out” into the realms of the imagination but by fully engaging themselves in the present moment.
Another Essential quality of the Nine is what Oscar Ichazo called “Holy Love.” . . . The Essential love to which we are referring is a dynamic quality of Being that flows, transforms, and breaks down all barriers before it. It overcomes feelings of separateness and isolation within ego boundaries, issues that plague the Instinctive Triad. This is why real love is frightening—it entails the dissolution of boundaries and the death of the ego. Yet as we learn to surrender to the action of Holy Love, we reconnect with the ocean of Being and realize that at our core, we are this Love. We are this endless, dynamic, transforming Presence of loving awareness, and it has always been so. [2]7
Our surrender to the action of Love in our lives and relationships with others will push forward to full life in the tension between the Two Ways.
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