Reading 1 Dt 30:15-20
Moses said to the people:
"Today I have set before you
life and prosperity, death and doom.
If you obey the commandments of the LORD, your God,
which I enjoin on you today,
loving him, and walking in his ways,
and keeping his commandments, statutes and decrees,
you will live and grow numerous,
and the LORD, your God,
will bless you in the land you are entering to occupy.
If, however, you turn away your hearts and will not listen,
but are led astray and adore and serve other gods,
I tell you now that you will certainly perish;
you will not have a long life
on the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and occupy.
I call heaven and earth today to witness against you:
I have set before you life and death,
the blessing and the curse.
Choose life, then,
that you and your descendants may live, by loving the LORD, your God,
heeding his voice, and holding fast to him.
For that will mean life for you,
a long life for you to live on the land that the LORD swore
he would give to your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6
R. (40:5a) Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Blessed the man who follows not
the counsel of the wicked
Nor walks in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the company of the insolent,
But delights in the law of the LORD
and meditates on his law day and night.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
He is like a tree
planted near running water,
That yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves never fade.
Whatever he does, prospers.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Not so the wicked, not so;
they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
For the LORD watches over the way of the just,
but the way of the wicked vanishes.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Gospel Lk 9:22-25
Jesus said to his disciples:
"The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected
by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed and on the third day be raised."
Then he said to all,
"If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself
and take up his cross daily and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.
What profit is there for one to gain the whole world
yet lose or forfeit himself?"
Meditation: Luke 9:22-25
“If anyone wishest to come after me … ” (Luke 9:23)
Don’t you find it amazing that Jesus Christ, the all-holy Son of God, would give us, mere mortals, a choice? He won’t force us to follow him; he simply calls us and hopes we will respond.
But what is this choice? Is it a choice to live a life of continual suffering, of “taking up our cross” day after day by passively accepting whatever trials come our way? Not at all! The real choice is to fix our eyes on Jesus or to try to live life on our own. It’s a choice between actively believing in Jesus or passively accepting a kind of “default” life in which we just go along with the rest of the world.
But if we want to choose Jesus over the default, it would be really helpful to understand who this Jesus is. That’s why today’s Gospel reading reveals Jesus to us and the call he is giving us. In fact, throughout this Lenten season, the Scripture readings will show us more and more about Jesus. They will show us that he is not just a good man whose example we should follow; he is the holy Son of God who became man so we could become sons and daughters of God. They will show us that he is not a God who tests our faith by making us suffer; he is the Lamb of God who laid down his life so that we could be transformed into his very image and likeness!
Seeing Jesus for who he is will also show us the difference between walking with the Lord and going it alone. If we choose Jesus every day, our lives will change—and dramatically. We won’t just be living as “mere mortals” anymore. We will find ourselves filled with the grace and power of Almighty God! We will be able to love the unlovable, to forgive the unforgivable, and to overcome the insurmountable. It may be costly. There may be challenges and difficulties along the way, but we can be confident that as we choose Jesus, our lives will be marked by confidence and hope.
“Lord Jesus, I choose to follow you today. I accept your promise of life. Lord, thank you for inviting me to be with you.”
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