Which do You Choose?

“I have set before you life and death” (Deuteronomy 30:15).

In today’s first reading, Moses tells the people they must make a decision. They must choose life or death. He exhorts them to choose life. How can we reconcile this exhortation with Jesus’s statement in today’s Gospel that we must take up our cross daily? Doesn’t it sound as though Jesus is telling us to choose death, each day over life?

The Instrument of Death

As we begin Lent, we are faced with forty days in which we are to take up our crosses. Each day, we enjoined to make sacrifices, spend extra time in prayer, and give charitably to those in need. What is the purpose of this? To sum it up quickly and easily, it is to emulate Jesus, to teach us how to take up our daily crosses, and to help us prepare to meet Jesus on the cross.

To First Century people, the cross was a weapon of ultimate destruction. It was an instrument of death. Nobody looked upon the cross without feeling terror and recognizing their mortality. 

Symbol of Life

For us, Catholics, however, we are not to look at the cross as an instrument of death, but as a symbol of life. Whileother denominations have a hard time understanding the crucifix and make claims that we keep Jesus nailed to the cross, dying over and over, we must remember that the crucified Christ does not mean death, but life for all humanity. He gave Himself willingly in death so that we might have life. 

You see, without the crucifixion, there would be no resurrection. In dying on the cross, Jesus opened the gates of Heaven to us, granting us eternal life. He embraced his cross so that we could have life, and we are meant to do the same. 

Choosing Life

By choosing to carry our crosses, we are not choosing death and destruction. We are not allowing terror to grip our souls or feel threatened by death. We are answering Jesus‘s call to everlasting life. It’s through sacrifice, prayer, and charity that we learn to stretch out our arms, to bear the burdens of others, to look up into the heavens and commend ourselves to the Father. 

Take up your cross daily, and choose eternal life.

Let us pray, “I beg You, by all You suffered in carrying Your cross, to help me carry mine with Your perfect peace and resignation” (St. Alphonsus Liguori). Amen.