Are You All In?

“Before man are life and death, good and evil,
whichever he chooses shall be given him.”

Sirach 15:17

When people question why God allows bad things happen to good people, the answers usually always involve “free will.” Some argue if God was all powerful why doesn’t he just stop bad things from happening? Why doesn’t He stop the earthquake in Turkey and Syria that has claimed more than 20,000 lives already? Although this last question cannot really be answered with “free will” because the tectonic plates and fault lines do not have free will. But, in other cases, such as why did God not spare the mother and child from the horrific car accident when a drunk driver swerved over the center line? The drunk driver exercised his free will to drink to the point he was impaired and decided to get behind the wheel. One may ask, but why didn’t God stop the car from turning on? Our God is not a magician or a god that does things for us in exchange for offerings. Our God is a God of relationship who loved His creation into existence and gave to the “apex of creation” — human beings, the gift of free will and free choice, and a gift as great as that comes with it consequences. In His infinite love, God gave us the freedom to choose right or wrong, life or death, good or evil, and will not interfere with our human agency because that will violate His gift to us.

In our freedom we must choose between right and wrong, good and evil, and life and death. And in the same freedom we must accept and endure the consequences that come with that decision. If I choose not to study for a test, I will need to accept the consequence that I will not achieve a perfect score. I cannot simply say a prayer in the morning and pray that my loving God will magically grant me an A because He knows this test will determine either I fail or pass the course. If that did happen, then we do not have a loving God, instead, we have an enabling genie. I do not know about you, but I will choose a God over a genie any day because the former knows us and loves us while the latter (if it did exist) simply executes a command regardless of its benefit or lack thereof to its commander.

As Christians we need to make a decision to either follow God or not to follow God. Our spiritual lives cannot be lukewarm. Jesus reminds His followers, “let your ‘yes’ mean ‘yes’ and your ‘no’ mean ‘no,’” for anything else is from the evil one (Matthew 5:37). However, I must say, most Christians, myself included, are lukewarm in their faith and pursuit of God and holiness. We choose to follow the commandments of verses of Scripture that fit our own agendas but disregard those that challenge our “beliefs.” That’s not how following Christ works. We either follow Him or we don’t. For Catholics, we either follow solemnly defined Church teaching as revealed by God or we do not. And if we do not, then we are not true followers. This is the point where presumption creeps in. “Oh, I cannot follow this teaching but God will understand my situation…” Yes, He knows Your situation but He has also revealed the Truth to you in His Son. Will you allow His Truth to bring your situation into the light and bring good out of it? Do you think a loving Father will allow His child to dwell in what is harmful to him or her? God sees us and loves us but He will not enable us. Sometimes love hurts because it is doing its job of cleansing, purifying, and sanctifying.

Will we trust our loving God and choose to follow Him and dwell in His love even though it will mean trials and suffering? Will our faith in Him and His love lead us to going all in? Because at the end of the day we are either all in or not in at all. We either follow the Lord or we do not. May we ask the Lord to grant us the courage and fortitude to trust in Him and to allow Him to lead us to Himself, knowing that He too will walk with us through our valleys of darkness because He Himself was not spared the Cross.

Inextinguishable Flame

“Then light shall rise for you in the darkness,
and the gloom shall become for you like midday.”

Isaiah 58:10b

Have you ever sat around a campfire and watched the wood slowly burning? Or maybe blown out a candle that required more effort than you imagined? Recently I placed one of those battery-operated tealights in front of the Mary statue that is outside my office and I left it on ever since the day I turned it on — nearly 3 weeks later, it is still going strong! It reminds me of how sometimes we get so tired from our work, yet there is still some juice left in us that enables us to keep going. Although it will probably be a good idea to get a recharge. There is such a flame that resides inside our hearts, a flame enkindled the day of our baptism, a flame that is the light of Christ.

Jesus tells His disciples that they are the salt of the earth and the light of the world just as He is the Light that has come into this world, the Light that has descended into the hell of darkness bringing new life to those who have died. We are sharers in this light and bearers of it. Each Christian has this flame inside of them. Just imagine it. In this dark world that has bought into a culture of death, there are small flames of light everywhere. Imagine having x-ray or night vision and looking into the dark world and seeing the numerous little flames of light scattered everywhere. What a scene. It reminds us of the covenant God made with Abraham that his descendants will be as numerous as the stars in the sky. Small lights if alone is hard to see, but when clustered together can illumine the night sky.

As Christians we must come together so that our individual little flames can join together to be a light that kills off the evil that plagues this world, the light that uncovers the truth, and the light that brings warmth and hope to those in despair and darkness. We must do our best to help others see the inextinguishable flame that is within them. And when our flame grows dim, we must join ourselves to our brothers and sisters who will kindle our flame once again, for when we do so, the Light and Source of our flames is in our midst. It is prayer and relationship that will reenergize us when we grow weary. We must never forget that. Just like the little tealight outside of my office before Our Lady that stays on however dim, as long as there is a battery in it, no matter how tired we may grow in our fight for the defense of all that is good and true, the light within us still flickers because the Source of our light can never be extinguished.

Part of the Remnant

“But I will leave as a remnant in your midst
a people humble and lowly,
who shall take refuge in the name of the LORD:
the remnant of Israel.”

Zephaniah 3:12-13a

In some of the Prophetic Books, we hear of this “remnant theology,” where the Prophets speak of a “remnant” of God’s people who will remain, the few that remain faithful, whose descendants will see the Messiah. As we may recall in Biblical history the Israelites repeatedly turned away from God and when the Prophets came to encourage them to return to the Lord with their hearts, some did but even more ignored them. As a result of their self-righteousness, pride, and idolatry, the Israelites fell into the hands of foreign powers, being exiled from their homeland. While in exile, some continued to turn away from God, while others came to accept the gods of their captors, but there were some who remained faithful to the Lord, the God who made His covenant with their ancestors. These faithful few became the remnant, the remnant through whom Salvation would come.

This notion of the “remnant” is not foreign to us today. To be Christian is to be countercultural. While Christians fight to defend life the world is calling all to embrace a culture of death. How is it that we live in a world that seeks and pursues death and not life, hatred and selfishness and not love and selflessness? Those who choose life and those who pursue the Truth are in the minority; they are the remnant of God. They will be ridiculed, persecuted, and even killed for their beliefs. Despite these hardships, the faithful remnant will continue to defend all that is good and all that is true because they know and believe that ultimately God is in control, that God is the Creator and that no creation can ever outmaneuver or triumph over its Creator. No matter how bad things may seem or be, we must always remind ourselves that God has the final say, and that God will bring good out of evil and life out of death. The faithful remnant will see the face of God and will inherit the earth.

In many ways the Beatitudes or the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1-12) outlines the way of the remnant. They are poor in spirit and meek, merciful and pure of heart, pursuers of righteousness and peace, and persecuted for speaking and defending the truth. Yet in all of this, they are the victors because they are blessed, not only in this world, but also in the life to come. Just as through the faithful remnant of Israel came the Messiah and Savior of the world, so too will many souls be saved from the sacrifices and suffering of the faithful remnant of today.

Will we choose to be a part of the faithful remnant of today?