What Will You Choose? Who Do You Serve?
We always have a choice. In every situation, in every circumstance, we always have a choice that we can freely make. That choice always begs the question, “whom do you serve?” “Who is your God?” Be it a life or death situation, or one that challenges your moral and ethical judgment; your response, our response will answer that question, “whom do you serve?” Do we serve the god of self? Do we serve the god of power? Do we serve the god of pleasure? Do we serve the god of this world? None of these gods can or will bring us the eternal joy that we seek. None of these gods can or will bring us peace of mind.
Every choice we make has consequences attached to it. Every choice we make will be a reflection of who we serve and of who the One True Living God really is to us. Choices do not just happen; they are made!. So you are a married person and you are presented with a choice to have an affair, you can choose to say a resounding “NO!” “I am married and more importantly, this does not please God!” You can also choose to follow that ways of the world and have an affair, and the consequences will be disastrous. Even if your spouse does not find out, your relationship will be severely damaged and so too will be your relationship with your children because deep in your heart, even though they may not know, you know that you have betrayed their trust.
There are several instances in the Bible where choices were made. Of course at the very beginning there is the choice of Adam and Eve to listen to the serpent instead of God, and the entire human race is now living in the consequence of that choice. So the cost of their choice was to have the forbidden fruit – mind you, they were given free reign to everything else in the Garden of Eden. The consequence of that choice was that the entire human race fell out of grace with God and fell into sin. As we read the bible starting from Genesis, we see a degradation in man’s relationship with God as a direct result of the sin of Adam and Eve.
In today’s first reading, Joshua gathers all the people together. He calls their elders, their leaders, their judges, their officers, and before God, he challenges them saying, “If it does not please you to serve the LORD, decide today whom you will serve, the gods your fathers served beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose country you are now dwelling. As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” But not only did the people choose to serve the One True and Living God, but they testified publicly, “It was the LORD, our God, who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, out of a state of slavery. He performed those great miracles before our very eyes and protected us along our entire journey and among the peoples through whom we passed. Therefore we also will serve the LORD, for he is our God.“
The people in the first reading recognised and remember what the lord had done and as such, were able to decisively choose to serve God. Can we too publicly testify that we have decided to serve the One True Living God, and can we publicly witness to all that He has done? God continues to work miracles in our lives and in our world in spite of all the evil and the darkness that we see. Can we testify to what He has done and continues to do, and as a result of this, choose wholeheartedly to follow, to love and to serve HIM?
The responsorial psalm invites us to taste and see that the Lord is good, and it is this experience of God’s goodness that gives us the grace to say YES to him. But why does it seem that so few are saying “YES” to God? Why does it seem that so few are choosing the One true Living God? It is not that God has reneged on his part of the deal for He is faithful in spite of our infidelity. He is always true. So what is it that is preventing so many from seeing what the Lord has done and continues to do? Saint Paul answers this question in 2 Corinthians 4: 3 – 4, “If our gospel seems to be veiled at all, it is so to those who are on the way to destruction, the unbelievers whose minds have been blinded by the god of this world, so that they cannot see shining the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” It is the God of this world that has blinded so many from choosing to serve the Lord. It is the God of this world that has blinded so many Catholics from not seeing the truth and beauty of the Catholic Faith. It is the God of this world that has blinded so many Catholics and Christians from recognizing Jesus, body, blood, soul and divinity in the Holy Eucharist. But in spite of this fact, the god of this world cannot just ‘blind you.’ You have to submit to him for this to happen. People become blinded by the god of this world as a direct consequence of decisions they’ve made.
In the gospel reading of John chapter 6, Jesus presented the twelve with a choice – “will you also leave?” He had just given them a most important teaching about who he was saying to them, “I am the living bread which has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is my flesh for the life of the world.” Then Jesus went on to tell them, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you shall not have life within you. Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood, has eternal life and I shall raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood real drink. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood live in me and I in him.” You will note that when the people chose to walk no more with Jesus, he did not call them back and tell them that they misunderstood what he said. JESUS MEANT EVERY WORD HE SAID. That is why he let them go.
Many Christians have no problems believing that Jesus is LORD and in accepting him as their “personal Lord and Savior.” They have no problem believing that he heals the sick, opens the eyes of the blind, raised the dead to life, he provides for their every need. But they and many Catholics have great difficulty in believing and accepting that Jesus who IS LORD, loves us to such an extent that not only gave his life for us all on a cross at Calvary, but He desires so much to be one with us that He gives us himself in the form of bread and wine, the living bread bread which has come down from heaven, his flesh for the life of the world. Just as in the second reading, a husband and wife give of themselves totally and faithfully to each other, so too does Jesus the Bridegroom desire and does give of himself to his bride, the Church, in the Holy Eucharist. It is a mystery. It is truth. Choose to believe. Choose to believe with your whole heart and with your life.
Our lives are made up of millions of choices. If we can get a complete picture. If we could jump ahead say ten, fifteen, twenty years, and see what the consequence of each choice we’ve made were, the chain of events we’ve set in motion as a result of our choices, what impact would this have on us? Would we do things differently? Would we choose to spend our time differently? Would we choose to forgive? Would we choose to reach out to others? Would we choose to be better fathers, better mothers, better parents, faithful spouses? Would we choose to be obedient children. Would we choose JESUS CHRIST? The Holy Eucharist gives you the grace to make the right choices in life. Choose to believe. Choose to follow JESUS CHRIST wholeheartedly.
The greatest choice ever made and that will ever be made was made by God when He chose to send His only Son, Jesus Christ, our of His love for us, to redeem a sinful world.
