Jesus Christ tells us point blank the way to get to heaven…..Its up to us to not only listen to him, but to follow him…..”I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse - Choose life”

Today at Holy Mass we hear in the first reading from the Book of Deuteronomy…..Moses presents a choice to his people as they journeyed to their home across the desert….”I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life”…This same choice remains in front of us today….We all must make a choice and it is through that lens of that choice that all our decisions will be made…..Words do not have to echo the choice we made, our very life speaks of it…Moses goes on….”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”….History can tells us a great deal about the present…If you look at the history of the Jewish people in the Old Testament…An over-arching theme that cuts across many of the books is the theme of exodus and return…This theme repeats itself over and over again…And Moses today brings this up again to his people…Whenever the Jewish people forget about God, everything falls apart and due to the misery that resulted from their turn from God, usually a person is raised up (today that person is Moses) and that person leads them back to God…Exodus & Return…Exodus & Return…….Is this theme, which we read about in the Old Testament any different from today?…..You would think mankind would learn….Sadly, we do not…We learn through suffering and hardship more times then not…….There are no short cuts to a good life here on earth…Just as there are no short cuts to heaven…Moses tells his people like it is…..And so did Jesus….These were the words of Jesus today in the Gospel of St Luke…"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?”….There are no shortcuts!…..And to think there are is a self rationalization that gets us nowhere….The grace of God is real - But it’s not cheap!

“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.”

If you are a student of history you will notice that powerful people and massive empires have attempted to take down the Catholic Church….The Roman Empire……Hitler and the Nazi’s….Stalin in Russia….Napoleon in France…Castro in Cuba….What do all this men and empires have in common?…They all failed in taking down the Catholic Church….Why?…Because God himself founded it……………….”Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”……..The same goes for when the Catholic Church was in need of renewal…The Lord rose up men and women saints to address the issues at hand…St Francis…St Dominic…St Ignatius Loyola….You would think that the secular world would learn and come to the obvious conclusion that the Catholic Church is indestructible…But sadly, the secular world keeps trying to take the Church down…But how about us?….Have we looked at these trends in history?…..The outcomes should be very obvious, yet we rationalize away the obvious so we can pursue our own agendas, which ultimately lead to nothing in the end…And many times, our own agenda, which take us from God lead our lives into misery in the here and now….I have learned that no matter what I say…No matter how logical I may be…Know matter how perfectly I present the outcomes of history…....This will not change the minds of men and lead them to God…....Words do not cut it!......You can not argue a person into the doors of the Catholic Church……Only one thing can accomplish the change we desire to see…It is the witness of a holy life…If we say we want to bring about the Kingdom of God here on earth and are not pursuing a holy life ourselves, frankly we are wasting our time…This is what Lent is all about…Its a time to recognize where we have gone wrong, repent of our sins and in turn open ourselves up to God’s grace…Which is the only catalyst for change, first within ourselves and then by our witness, for those around us

“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.”

Today at Mass, the theme of exodus and return is communicated to us once again….We are told by both Moses and Jesus that we must make a choice…If you were to ask one hundred people this question…”Do you want to go to heaven?”…Every single one of them would probably say - Yes…However…If you then asked those same hundred people if they agreed with what Jesus said about how we are to get to heaven….."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.”….Sadly I don’t think we would get the same outcome as we did to the first question….But here is the thing - Whether we agree with Jesus or not does not change reality……What mankind has not “figured out” is this….We do not make the rules - God does and only God has authority - We do not….Jesus Christ tells us point blank the way to get to heaven…..Its up to us to not only listen to him, but to follow him…..”I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse - Choose life”