Weekly HOMILY for August 27, 2006: Decisions, Decisions, Decisions!

21st Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle B
Our Lady of Grace
August 27, 2006

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions!
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato


Choices

Most of us have heard of the folk singer Joan Baez. Her songs were most popular in the 1960s and ‘70s, but she remains active and a well-known personality today.

Joan Baez once said this. “You don’t get to choose how you’re going to die. Or when. You can only decide how you’re going to live. Right now.”

In a similar fashion, a Spanish philosopher named Jose Ortega y Gasset said this: “Living is a constant process of deciding what we are going to do.”

And then, I came across a statement in a Catholic publication by a young man named Graham who is suffering with HIV-AIDS. He says, “AIDS presents me with a choice, either to be a hopeless victim or to make my life right now what it always ought to have been.”


The Choice in Scripture

These three folks – Joan Baez, Jose Ortega and Graham – all understand the need and importance of choice.

They know we need to make a choice about our lives and we need to make choices every day. They know that these choices are important.

The Word of God today presents us with the very same reality.

In the first reading, Joshua challenges the people of Israel to make a choice.

Apparently, they have grown too self-reliant and are wavering in their service of God. And so Joshua asks them flat out: “Will you continue to serve the Lord God or not?”

In the Gospel, Jesus’ followers are finding some of his teachings difficult to accept. And so, he too asks them to make a choice: “Do you want to stay with me or leave me?”

So, choice – the need and importance of making choices each day about our lives – this is the issue facing us today.

Reflecting on this through the past week, I came to see that there are three levels or types of choices that we are constantly needing to make.


Three Choices

First, we need to make what I call a fundamental choice. Do I choose to believe that there is a God?

Do I choose to believe that Jesus is God’s Son? Do I choose to believe that Jesus reveals to me who God is and also who I am to become as a person and how I am to live?

This choice is fundamental because it is the base, the platform on which I stand and on which the rest of life depends and for this reason it is the most important of choices.

It determines whether I see myself as alone in this world or as coming from God and someday returning to God.

This fundamental choice also determines, as Joan Baez says, “How we are going to live now.” Needless to say, this most fundamental choice is crucial.

Second, there are what I call the everyday choices. These are choices that should follow from our fundamental choice about God and Jesus.

These are everyday choices about right or wrong, good or bad.

So, a child needs to choose whether to tell the truth or to lie when his parents ask if he hit his little sister.

Teenagers need to choose whether to hang out with peers who are into drugs or to look for another group of friends.

We adults need to choose whether to spend our money on things we do not really need or to give a bit more to those in need.

As the Spanish philosopher Ortega y Gassett says, “Life is a constant process of these choices.” They too are crucial in shaping who we will be in the long run of life.

And third, there are what I call crisis choices.

Maybe we have lost our job, or a child or grandchild has died before her time, or we disagree with some part of our faith or religion.

These moments can be a real crisis in life. And the choice is: “Do we still believe in and follow the Lord or not?

Will we give up and finally abandon faith? Or do we make our own the words of Peter in today’s Gospel: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

Will we still entrust ourselves to the mystery of God? Will we still cast out lot with Jesus even though we do not and cannot fully understand?


Conclusion

So, choice – the need and importance of choosing everyday – that is the issue placed before us.

We can make a fundamental choice, an everyday choice, and a crisis choice for God or not for God.

The decision is ours.