Today is March 6, the Thursday after Ash Wednesday.
At today’s Mass, we hear: “Today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and doom” (Dt 30:15).
We have a choice to make and the stakes are high. Will we choose life or death? The cause of death is the replacement of God with other things. It happens when we allow ourselves to be trapped by material goods and pleasure, choking the spiritual life out of us. God is the source of life. Replacing him with anything else is death.
Eternal life is found in Jesus Christ. In the Gospel, Jesus invites each of us individually to the source of life: “Follow me.”
Where is he going? He is going to suffer and die to sin and death. By doing this, he is going to win life for us. In death, Jesus brings life. Therefore, “whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”
How do we truly live?
We, too, must die to sin and death so that we can live. In order to do this and allow this process to take place in us, we submit ourselves to fasting and penance for the sake of gaining life. By fixing our minds on life, we find the motivation to root out whatever leads to death in our lives.
If we want to live, we must pick up our crosses, suffer, and die with Jesus. The stakes are high. Thankfully, we are not alone on this journey. We persevere with Jesus, who travels with us. Jesus not only paves the way ahead of us but walks beside us through death to everlasting life.
Let us pray,
Prompt our actions with your inspiration, we pray, O Lord, and further them with your constant help, that all we do may always begin from you and by you be brought to completion. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
