Sir. 15:15-20; Ps. 119:1-2, 4-5, 17-18, 33-34; 1 Cor. 2:6-10; Mt.5:17-37

“If you choose!”  If you choose heaven is waiting but it comes with a call to obedience, not my will but your Lord.  Created in the freedom to choose to obey or not, to choose good or evil, we either follow the law of God or choose to deny him.  When we follow the law of the Lord, we discover true freedom from the fire of hell and come to the waters of salvation.  The God of love “does not command to act unjustly” or “give a license to sin” thus we cannot come to God and say “the devil made me do it” as Adam and Eve tried to pass on the blame.   It didn’t work for Adam and Eve and it won’t work for us.  God “understands man’s every deed” meaning he knows our deepest motivation from the mind and heart that is leading us to commit our deeds by our choice.  Where is the mercy of God?  If you choose you can be free from sin and enter the kingdom of God.

Before we are tempted to ask as the disciples did “who then can enter the kingdom of God?” and judge that we are simply “all sinners and fall short of the glory of God” by our choice let us recall our God is a loving God full of mercy and forgiveness.  The mercy of God sees beyond the act of sin to the source of sin.  A misguided heart from childhood can undergo many trials in life that create a pattern and precondition to sin.  Consider the child who undergoes abuse, how is he to learn to trust in a God after his trust in others was betrayed; or how is a poorly developed conscience that is formed to believe it is a “dog eat dog world” with winners and losers so whatever it takes to win is justified. 

God does not abandon his own creation but will provide for that moment of conversion whereby if you choose mercy and redemption is given to the repentant thief, even at the hour of death.  The choice from God’s love is ours, choose wisely for the hour is coming when we are put to the test.  The test is to choose to “keep the commandments, they will save you.” 

The obedience to God also comes through the church as Jesus declared “whoever listens to you listens to me.  Whoever rejects you rejects me.  And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”  What a tremendous responsibility and trust he is placing on his disciples who are to be the foundation of his church.  The takeaway for us is we cannot say, “I believe in God but not in his church”.  This is not one of the choices.  If we have a problem with the church then come and discover where does this teaching, doctrine, and church law has it’s basis otherwise we either get over it or we find ourselves stretching out hand out to the fire or the water. 

Even less is the choice to say “I follow my conscience.”  A conscience can be very well intentioned and very poorly informed.  All we have to do is look to the world and how everyone feels entitled to their truth in choices of life, death, identity, and to deny the existence of sin.  This hand is reaching for the fire. 

If you choose to follow the law of the Lord then “your way is blameless” because Jesus Christ has taken up our sins on the cross.  We are now followers of the way of truth, goodness, justice, and charity.  In the waters of baptism, he comes through the Holy Spirit into the deepest recesses of our hearts and will give us wisdom to discern the will of God.  We are to pray “Incline my heart according to your will, O God”, then go forth and trust in the Lord.  The mind of humanity will never capture the fullness of the Lord but it can receive his love in the fullness of our capacity to love him.  St. Thomas Aquinas after years as a priest, after thousands of pages of writing and deep thought had a vision of the Lord that caused him such an impact he never had another word written down.  We don’t have to be the smartest mind.  We need to be the humblest of creatures. 

Having grown up with parents who only had a first-grade education their reading and writing was very limited and yet what filled them with the wisdom of God came “through the Spirit” baptized in the faith there was a maturity of faith by choosing to follow the law of the Lord.  It gave them the gifts of the Spirit not only faith, hope and love but also the virtues of justice, prudence, strength and temperance.   This is the blessing of the Spirit to enter into the deepest recesses of our heart and guide a well-formed conscience.  They simply choose to follow the law of the Lord, keep it simple and the Spirit came with divine teaching to guide them on the way to salvation. 

If you choose to follow in the way of the Lord the Spirit comes to light the way.  We often do not speak of the Spirit enough.  Our hearts center on God the Father and Jesus the Son and miss out on the power of the Spirit.  It is the Spirit that “scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God”.  If the Spirit scrutinizes everything then it reveals the whole truth of our being.  It is given to us to be our advocate to the Father for it is the Spirit that is the indwelling gift within us and knows our very essence for what we choose to be and to act.  We are to always pray “come Holy Spirit take possession of my heart and strengthen me by your grace”.