In our first reading today from the book of Sirach, there is both a solution, and a challenge. We are told what will save us, the commandments, and we are told that it will do so if we choose to obey them and trust in God, the choice / challenge. The choice of how we are to live, to embrace fire or water (death or life), and whether we will be with God or cast out, is plainly left before us. Our Lord understands us completely, and desires us to be with Him, but he also loves us enough to grant us the dignity of free will and the ability to choose. We are not enslaved so that we have no choice, we are instead children of God endowed with the dignity that comes from that lineage, and so have complete freedom to choose our path.
This choice that we are permitted to make is one of the reasons that it was so imperative that He send his Son to us. To try to navigate this choice that will have eternal implications for each of us requires a knowledge and wisdom that is beyond us, and so we need a teacher. Not just any teacher, but one who fully possesses the knowledge of God, because He is God, but also one who could come to us in a form that we would be able to comprehend and to embrace on a level that would guide us throughout life and ultimately lead us to salvation. All of that is gained through a wisdom that is mysterious and hidden, that is beyond anything that human wisdom can contrive. The answers to so many of the questions that people had about who Jesus was were right in the prophecies that they read so often, and yet they could not fathom it, or accept what seemingly little they did glean from it. This inclination within the human intellect and wisdom is why so many chose to reject our Lord, and why today we still often reject His teaching and commands in favor of our own inclinations.
The commands that our Lord gave us are anything but burdensome. Whether we speak of the Commandments that God gave to Moses, or of the new standard that our Lord Jesus Christ taught us that set the bar higher in terms of our intent and the thoughts and feelings within that are so often corrupted and lead to sin. None of these would be a burden to someone who sought to keep the words of Christ foremost in his heart and mind, and who loved both God and his fellow men and women with the self-sacrificing love that we are called to. Yet, here is the challenge, because we often do not think in these terms; we are instead pulled away by the “wisdom” of man, and by worldly inclinations to self-gratification and selfishness. We choose to hate, and to ridicule, and to degrade ourselves because we think it is easier than to hold to that standard. It is like someone who is addicted, and always tells themself that there is satisfaction to be found in that “one last fix” and so they continue that destructive behavior – the same is true of our sinful destructive behavior. If we stopped to experience the alternative that we perceive as a burden and actually felt the freedom that it actually is, we would have to be completely crazy to continue with that way of living. Yet the choice remains, and the problems will continue until we finally relent and give up the reigns and let God intervene and guide us in loving, trusting acceptance of what He offers.
The Deacons Bench 