CHOOSE LIFE…

Deuteronomy 30:15-20

15 “See, I have set before you this day life and good, death and evil. 16 If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you this day, by loving the LORD your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his ordinances, then you shall live and multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land which you are entering to take possession of it.
17 But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them,
18 I declare to you this day, that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land which you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess.
19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live,
20 loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice, and cleaving to him; for that means life to you and length of days, that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”

Luke 9:22-25

22 saying, “The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”
23 And he said to all, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
24 For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake, he will save it. 25 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?  

MEDITATION

THF FIRST READING: The author alert the Hebrew people that they have to choose between good and evil which will place them on the path of life or death. In order to achieve the state of life eternal, the people must obey the law; know that there is a God; to love and fear Him, to sanctify His name and to worship Him alone. Conversely if the people do not abide by these commands, statutes and ordinances then they will not enter the promised land. 

THE GOSPEL READING: Jesus foretell the trajectory of His mission, by pointing out that He will be  the victim of rejection, pain, suffering and death at the hands of the Hebrew institutional leaders and teachers. With this said, Jesus challenged his disciples that they too have to take up their cross daily and follow Him, if they so choose.

Those who lack the belief in the existence of an all knowing and loving trancedent God, more often than not, posit that human suffering invalidate the theistic notion that God actually exist, never mind that He cares about us. On the other hand they speak no word about the emminence of death whether brutal or painless, that they cannot avoid neither explain! Christ demonstrate that pain and suffering—however mysterious it’s existence—are meritorious and transformative acts of grace and mercy whereby we intimately share in His suffering that shall gift us eternal life in and through Him, if we so choose.

Catec 385 God is infinitely good and all his works are good. Yet no one can escape the experience of suffering or the evils in nature which seem to be linked to the limitations proper to creatures: and above all to the question of moral evil. Where does evil come from? “I sought whence evil comes and there was no solution”, said St. Augustine, and his own painful quest would only be resolved by his conversion to the living God. For “the mystery of lawlessness” is clarified only in the light of the “mystery of our religion”. The revelation of divine love in Christ manifested at the same time the extent of evil and the superabundance of grace. We must therefore approach the question of the origin of evil by fixing the eyes of our faith on him who alone is its conqueror.

LET US PRAY: Psalms 1:1-4,6
1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; 2 but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.
3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. 4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff which the wind drives away. 6 for the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

Commentary. Henry R SYLVESTER Note: The daily scripture readings are taken from the Roman Missal which the Catholic Church use in the daily Celebration of the Holy Eucharist throughout the world.Some weekly readings may differ because of the celebration of local feast days.