Choose the Cross and have life in you

Deut. 30:15-20, Lk 9:22-25. On this day, the day after Ash Wednesday, we continue to uphold our resolve to live through this Holy Season of Lent, to spend time with the Lord and carry our cross with Him. In today's first reading, God through His servant Moses communicated clearly to the people the choice that they had before them, as they went through forty years journey in the desert while waiting to enter into the promised land. Many of them had disobeyed the Lord and refused to follow His ways, preferring to follow sinful ways, harden their hearts and minds against God. We have been given a choice: either to live in God’s way and obey His commandments or abandon Him and turn instead to the ways of the world that is seemingly easier and less challenging.

We are presented with the choice between the seemingly tougher and less appealing way that God showed us and the seemingly more enjoyable path of this world. In today's Gospel, Jesus also speaks of the cross as a requirement for discipleship. The path of the world seems to be easier to us and it seems to be less arduous, less challenging and more promising, as this is the effort by the devil and all of his forces, trying to tempt us into sin, into disobedience against God, by presenting all sorts of wicked temptations that go straight into our pride and our greedy desires.

May the Lord lead us more deeply into the life of Christ and guide us in the path of justice and truth! Amen!! Good morning, peace be with you!!!