The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today express the choice we are offered to follow a path to fullness of life that is our relationship with Jesus.
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The reading from the Book of Deuteronomy presents the choice before Israel to choose Life.
“Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live,” (Deuteronomy, CHAPTER 30, n.d.)
Psalm 1 presents the Two Ways.
* [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. (Psalms, PSALM 1, n.d.)
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus shares the First Prediction of the Passion and the conditions of Discipleship.
* [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. (Luke, CHAPTER 9, n.d.)
Carol Zuegner comments that the message from Luke is short and to the point. We must take up the cross daily.
Why is that important? God gets that I’m trying, doing my best, right? God does. But this is for me. The last two lines of the Gospel reading made that more clear to me: “What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?" What I need to remember is that I make decisions large and small every day where I might gain the world yet lose or forfeit myself. It’s not just in the big things where I can lose myself, it’s in those little things. When I think I’ve gained the upper hand by making myself feel better at the expense of someone else. When I could help out a colleague or a friend or a family member, but I’m too busy. I lose those little pieces of myself. And what have I gained? That’s what can happen when I don’t make the decision to take up the cross every day. (Zuegner, 2023)
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) (Schwager, n.d.)
The Word Among Us Meditation on Deuteronomy 30:15-20 comments that if the Israelites could hold fast to the commands to love the Lord and love one another, they would experience the “life” that Moses promised and would grow and flourish. Their obedience would help them preserve the unity and blessings they were beginning to enjoy as God’s chosen people.
So the next time one of God’s commands seems to be standing in the way of your happiness, ask yourself, “How does this command—as challenging as it may be—truly bring about the ‘life’ that God has promised me?” You can also ask, “What kind of ‘death’ will I experience as a result of this sin?” Think about not just the short-term but also the long-term consequences of each action. The more you evaluate your options this way, the more clearly you’ll see that it is sin, not God’s rules, that imprisons us. The more you’ll see that following the Lord is the best way to live in peace and enjoy the salvation that Jesus has won for you.
Every day we have countless opportunities to choose life or to choose death. Let’s choose life!
“Father, thank you for offering me the opportunity to taste your life more deeply with each choice I make.” (Meditation on Deuteronomy 30:15-20, n.d.)
Friar Jude Winkler comments on the very dualistic nature of the passage from Deuteronomy that warns that we may choose things that are not filled with life. Followers of Christ take up the Cross everyday and die to themselves little by little. Friar Jude reminds us of the fullness of life that is found in loving and giving of ourselves.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, introduces author and scholar Diana Butler Bass writes of Jesus as “the way,” a title Jesus used for himself. He not only taught a way inviting the curious to follow him, but he said he was the way: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (14:6). And the next sentence: “No one comes to the Father except through me.” Wait, what? The welcome is pulled back, boundaries are put up, and suddenly the picture shifts, as the call to dance and sing and run through the fields fades into a rather grim image of judgment and exclusion.….
Many Christians cling ferociously to the exclusionary interpretation of this verse…. [Yet] “way,” “truth,” and “life” are relational words, all things that Jesus says he is. “Way” is not a technique or map, “truth” is not about philosophy or dogma, and “life” is not about going to heaven. In the mystical poetry of John, Jesus uses these terms to explain how he embodies a way of being in this world [that is] so close to the heart of God that God can be known in and through Jesus. (Rohr, 2023)
Butler Bass describes being drawn to the inner and outer journeys of contemplation and action:
This quest is a mapless journey—there is no single road—the only guides to it are nature, saints, poetry, song, and Spirit. When you dare leave the map behind, Jesus emerges as the road itself and the Light that guides. The Quakers refer to this as the “inner light”; medieval mystics speak of Jesus likewise. Of it Meister Eckhart wrote: “There is a journey you must take. It is a journey without destination. There is no map. Your soul will lead you. And you can take nothing with you.” [2] Conventional Christianity (of many different denominations) prefers to see Jesus as a directive or destination rather than this path; for them “way” is a noun, not a verb. On the mapless journey, however, all is movement. There is no destination, only the enveloping presence of love. (Rohr, 2023)
We are prompted on our spiritual journey by the Spirit to choose life giving that is the Way of Jesus for fullness of life.
References
Deuteronomy, CHAPTER 30. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved February 23, 2023, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/deuteronomy/30?15
Luke, CHAPTER 9. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved February 23, 2023, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/9?22
Meditation on Deuteronomy 30:15-20. (n.d.). The Word Among Us: Homepage. Retrieved February 23, 2023, from https://wau.org/meditations/2023/02/23/616414/
Psalms, PSALM 1. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved February 23, 2023, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/1?1
Rohr, R. (2023, February 23). A Mapless Journey — Center for Action and Contemplation. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved February 23, 2023, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/a-mapless-journey-2023-02-23/
Schwager, D. (n.d.). Take up Your Cross Daily and Follow Christ. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved February 23, 2023, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2023&date=feb23
Zuegner, C. (2023, February 23). Creighton U. Daily Reflection. Online Ministries. Retrieved February 23, 2023, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/022323.html
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