Day 2, Thursday, 18 February

 

RETREAT IN LENT 2021

Day 2, Thursday, 18 February

A Choice.

Lent wastes no time in getting to the point. It is a matter of choice. We go right back to Deuteronomy (30:15-20) written 3,000 years ago: ‘I set before you life and prosperity, death and disaster. … Choose life, then, so that you and your descendants may live in the love of the Lord your God …’

 

Maybe it is not so simple. I cannot choose because my circumstances do not allow me. Yet, I can always choose – no matter what the circumstances! I am thinking, for example, of people in prison I have met. They cannot choose to walk out the door. But they can choose how they will live the time that they are inside. They can choose to be hopeful, helpful to others, cheerful, patient – always ‘singing in their heart’. Or they can choose to be miserable, counting the days, nursing a grudge against someone and full of self-pity. The former can be happy, even in prison, while the latter choose to be unhappy!

 

The gospel draws us deeper into the mystery of human life. Happiness is not accumulating things, getting my own way, dominating others. Happiness is in getting out of myself and being there for others, ‘renouncing self and taking up my cross every day’ (Luke 9:22-25). Happiness is the opposite of thinking of myself and my property, my reputation, my pleasure, my, my, my! Happiness is in ‘emptying’ myself, ‘losing my life’.

 

I think we have all grasped it at times: the joy we have in giving a present, doing a job for someone without looking for payment, reaching out to someone in trouble. There are many times in which we glimpse what Jesus means by ‘losing one’s life’.

 

We have this power to choose. Everyone has it. It is the most beautiful thing about human beings. Choosing well is what makes us more human, makes us grow as people, helps us build a better family, make a better society, create a better world.

 

Enjoy the day!