Choose Life; Lose Your Life

Homily for Thursday after Ash Wednesday

St. Irenaeus once wrote that “the glory of God is the human person fully alive.” This idea certainly fits well with the words of Moses in today’s first reading. “Choose life.”

However, the Gospel message seems to point us in a different direction. St. Luke tells us that we should save our lives by losing them.

How do we reconcile these two seeming opposite ideas?

There are some who believe that a full life is one of prosperity, love, health, and general well-being. However, the persistent reversal of fortune theme that runs throughout the Scriptures teaches us that gaining these things means making ourselves the least, choosing to obey God’s commands rather than our own wills, and placing the needs of others before our own.

The Scriptures teach us that death entered the world through sin. This should alert us to the notion that when the Scriptures are speaking about life and death, they are speaking about something more than the life we live as mortal humans. In fact, the definition of death in both the Hebrew and the Christian Scriptures is “life without God.” The fully alive human person is the one who lives with God both in this world and in the next. Being human means that one day we shall all die. We are dust, and unto dust we shall return. However, if we wish to know the glory of God in this world and in the next, then we must be fully alive, alive with God. Choosing life is simply a matter of choosing God’s will over ours.

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator