I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse

February  23, Thursday after Ash Wednesday
Memorial of Saint Polycarp, bishop and martyr
Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Luke 9:22-25

Word of God is not a menu of too many choices like a restaurant buffet or online store.

God sets before us just two options only: Good or evil and corresponding reward of life or death. Every human being must choose one; there is no in between!

What, then, is the best way to always choose good and life-giving path? Jesus gives us the secret.

Jesus says, “If you wish to be a follower of mine, deny yourself and take up your cross each day, and follow me!”

Often people think of ‘cross’ and self-denial’ as mortifications and physical suffering. In fact, ‘deny oneself’ means no more to consider ‘myself’ or me as the most important thing in the world; in other worlds, it means simply to move beyond ego-centred living. It demands to accept others, accept happenings of life with faith. So, the cross meant by Jesus is my self and ego along with all pains and sufferings of the day to day life. It also requires serving others, spending time and energy for the well-being of others.

Jesus gives his own life as the best example to be followed: ‘the Son of Man came to serve, and not to be served;’ ‘… must suffer many things, … will be rejected …, and be put to death.” Jesus is telling us of his own sufferings before asking us to take up ours.

But that is not the end. Call to suffering is accompanied by a promise to ‘be raised’ on the ‘third day’ with heavenly glory beyond all earthly splendours and pleasures. It is a prize more precious than most prizes the world can give.

Jesus thus sets a new project of life for the disciples. “For if you choose to save your life, you will lose it; but if you lose your life for my sake, you will save it.” To enter the glory of resurrected life, one has to die to the worldly project; One must choose ‘death’ to this world, to ‘live’ to the eternal life.

This is the project of kingdom of God brought about by Jesus: To life through death, to glory through humiliation, to receive by giving, to joy through pain.

For reflection:
Choosing life is costly too! It is choosing the narrow road, meaning to pass through death daily by laying down lives for service of others, not just to protect us and our own. It is the new logic of the Kingdom.

Think about the rhetorical question of Jesus that has changed the lives of many men and women: “What does it profit you to gain the whole world, if you destroy or damage yourself?”