In our lifetime we make many choices. Some of them are very significant and might even be heroic, while others may seem less consequential, yet still necessary. We all choose:for example, how to spend our money; what career to pursue; whether or not to marry, and whom if we do; what values are important to us; what issues we are willing to stand up for; and “What place does God have in my life?”
Some people contend that God is responsible for the choices we make. In philosophy, this is called predestination. That is like saying God calls all the shots. Such a viewpoint wipes out any gist of human freedom, which doesn’t make sense when you consider all the choices we freely make on any given day. We are who we are because we have free will. The choices we make shape our lives.
Think back to the story of creation. In the beginning, God was courageous enough to make a creature who might refuse to love him. To allow that creature’s love to be genuine, God gave Adam and Eve the knowledge of good and evil and the freedom to choose between them. When they sinned by listening to the tempter who prompted them to eat of the tree of knowledge, God did not write them off as a failed experiment in love. Instead, God encouraged them and their descendants to be faithful to his commandments.
As Sirach points out, the human person chooses between fire and water, life and death, good and evil. The prophet’s point is to excuse God from all blame for the evil in the world for “to none does he give license to sin.” The responsibility for sin is to be laid at the feet of those who choose to do so. Like Topsy, in the American classic, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, we can say, “The devil made me do it,” but we made the choice to listen to the devil in the first place whenever we sin.
The choice is ours to keep or ignore God’s commandments but so too are the consequences of our decision. As Sirach suggest, evil choices will burn us like fire and good choices will refresh us like water.
While every age in human history reflects its own wisdom, Paul tells us of a timeless wisdom. “What eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him, this God has revealed to us through the Spirit.” The more we love God, the more we can grasp his wisdom, which will allow us to see that the commandments are intended to enable us to live life fully.
By choosing to do the right thing for the right reason, Jesus is saying that we can experience the joy of God’s kingdom in this lifetime. Those who choose to live according to God’s timeless wisdom will find themselves following a wisdom based not on logic, statistics or passing trends but on love. Antoine de St. Exupery, the French aviator best known for his book, The Little Prince, once said, “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
Unfortunately, we tend to view the commandments literally,just as the Pharisees and scribes did, forgetting that they are really the reader’s digest of God’s moral teachings. This is why Jesus calls on his listeners to consider their motives, not just their actions. Instead of declaring the commandments obsolete, he broadens them for us to include our thoughts and words in addition to our deeds. Consider the first example he gives: “You shall not kill,” but then he goes on to caution that anger can be just as deadly. There is more than one way to kill a person besides doing so literally.
Once we see rightly, then we can see the wisdom of what Jesus is saying when he urges us to be reconciled with our brother. “Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court, otherwise you may be thrown into prison.” The first sacrifice that God looks for in us is our endeavor to be at peace with others through reconciliation.
When Jesus cautions that we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven if our righteousness does not surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees, he is saying that what matters more than our external behavior is the inner disposition of our hearts. Hanging on the wall in my office is a quote by Ralph Emerson, “What lies behind you and what lies before you are tiny matters compared to what lies within you.” Rollo May, a renowned psychologist notes, “the essential point in Jesus’ ethics was his shifting the emphasis from the external rules of the Ten Commandments to inward motives.”
In this sermon, Jesus teaches us a higher morality, a tougher faith. It’s not just appearances that matter, but what’s deep inside us. It’s not whether we look good, but whether our motives are right. Since none of us can make ourselves good on our own, we turn to God, who can make us right and good and pure. We can choose to let God make this journey of life with us.
Are you ready to make such a choice? On the table in the narthex, you will find this flyer entitled, Living life as a sacred story. Beginning on Ash Wednesday, I invite you to join me on a forty-week retreat that will provide a daily prayer walk with Jesus. This life-changing program, based on thespiritual exercises of St. Ignatius, could introduce you to a heart-felt personal relationship with Jesus through daily prayer, spiritual discernment and the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Will you accept my invitation?