Reflection on the Readings

REFLECTION ON THE READINGS

Our lives are filled with moments that present definitive forks in the road.

• Should I go to college or take that job at my uncle’s shop?
• Should I pop the question with this romantic partner or continue to look for a spouse?
• Is it time to relocate with the company or would I be wise to stay put?
• Would Mom be better off in assisted living or moving in with us?
• Will surgery make my back problems go away or will I be worse off?

Of course, every hour of our lives is replete with decisions mostly made unconsciously. What distinguishes the rarer moments of decision is that we are aware of a certain finality in them. We recognize that we are at a turning point upon which the future will revolve. Once committed to “this” path, there is no turning back.

The life of faith has many such definitive moments. We mark them with sacraments: Baptism, Confirmation, Matrimony, Holy Orders. We renew that commitment in our every Eucharist, the celebration of Confession/Reconciliation, and the witness of courage in the Anointing of the Sick.

Yet the dichotomy remains….being “for” something means you’re going to be “against” other things.

You see, being for Christ also means standing against many of the ways and values of our culture. As an old folk hymn says, “The cross before me, the world behind me. No turning back, no turning back!”

And that reality inevitably places us at a crossroads.

Because you can only straddle the fence for so long. In our first reading, the Israelites, who have now been wandering in the desert for 40 years, are challenged to make a choice by Joshua, their leader. Now, one thing needs to be determined before the nation takes root in the Promised Land:

Who is their God?
Whom will they serve?
Do they want and intend to be the people of God?

It’s no idle question; they stood poised on the brink of a new world, full of Canaanite gods and well-established cults that worked just fine.

• Should they bank on the God that had delivered them thus far, or would it be more practical to adopt the enticing and attractive gods of the Canaanites?

Remember that the nation before Joshua was composed of sons and daughters of those who had once stood before Moses and addressed a similar moment of decision when he said:

“I set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. 
Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live.”

It may seem like a false dichotomy: Who would choose death and the curse that goes with it? But we who live in the modern culture of death, as Pope John Paul II termed it, are in no position to scoff at the question.

Many people today choose the way of death, and most of us suffer under the curse that emanates from it. Our children inherit a world in which gross inequality, violence, poverty, abortion, capital punishment, euthanasia, irresponsible genetic research, environmental negligence, and war are all givens. The love of money and power has replaced the love and respect for life. And as every generation learns to its sorrow – there is a point where there is no turning back.

So, it may be the case with our faith-life. The path we choose to take has ramifications, for better or worse.

In our Gospel this weekend, Jesus turns to the 12 apostles and invites them to consider this moment of decision for themselves. Peter answers for the rest: Where would we go, if we turned away from the source of life? We believe in you. The other way is darkness.

Friends, the decisive question continues to be posed because each new generation has to address it.

• We can be baptized and still say no.
• We can receive our First Communion and have our faith ratified at Confirmation and still turn our backs.
• We can journey with Jesus as members of his church and determine one day that we’ll go no further.
• We can be faithful churchgoers all our lives yet at the critical hour, when our testimony is called upon, we may waffle and stammer and look away, making a lie of it all.

Are you with me or do you want to leave? Jesus asks. 

Saint Peter’s answer remains the best, but we can only repeat it if we mean it.

Life is here. Love is here. Challenge is here. The Cross is here. Forgiveness is here…the choice is ours.

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