13th
Sunday in Ordinary Time
Cycle B
You’ve all
seen the pro life bumper sticker that proclaims, “Choose Life”. I don’t think
one that reads “Choose Death” would sell very well. But is life a choice? Can
and do we choose to live? And who really wants to choose to die? Doesn’t life
just happen to you? I didn’t consciously ask to be created. Neither did you.
And if I had a choice I wouldn’t want to die. I’d want to live forever. And all
that pain in the world. Who would choose that? Does pain just happen? If I
really had a choice I’d choose to have no pain in my life, wouldn’t you?
The first
reading today is tremendously important, addressing some of our deepest
questions: “Why do Death and suffering exist?” and “Did God make death?”
The Book of Wisdom says that God did not create death, and He is not happy
about it. All that He created was meant to be wholesome, not destructive.
In the Book of Genesis, when God created the world, at the end of each day he
looked at what he had created and saw that it was good. Until the sixth day,
after he created man and woman, and he looked and saw that it was very
good.
God cannot
create evil. God is love, and true love cannot be evil, it is always good.
Therefore it is not in God’s nature to do or create anything less than good.
Evil must come from somewhere else.
Why then
do death and suffering exist? Well, there are two very wrong yet opposite
opinions that people hold regarding death, pain and suffering. The first is
sort of like, “Stuff happens.” There is a fatalistic idea that we are the
victim of forces beyond our control. The ancients believed that we have
no control over our lives and so have no responsibility for our destiny.
“It’s all in the stars,” they would say, or it’s all up to the will of the gods. And
some religions believe in Karma or Joss, or the will of Allah. Fate or luck. That’s
not what we believe. The Book of Wisdom tells us that we do have control
over our destiny: if we follow God we will be raised up by Him. If
we turn from Him, we turn to death.
The
opposite and perhaps more widespread wrong opinion on why death exists is that
somehow God wills it. A wife, husband or child dies. Well meaning
people and even clergy will say, "It was God's will." This is
blatantly wrong. God does not will death. We've got to get the
concept, "It was God's will" out of our vocabulary when dealing with
death. Remember the Book of Wisdom, "God did not make death
and does not delight in the death of the living."
Why, then,
does death exist? Death is not caused by God’s will but by ours. Death
exists because we choose to place our will before God’s. Death exists because
we can choose good. The ability to choose good means that we can also choose
not to do good, and that's sin. We are ultimately responsible for
our own actions, and those actions have consequences. St. Paul says that the
wages of sin is death. The ability to choose life means that we can reject
life. That's death. Evil does not exist for the creatures who do
not have the ability to choose it. Neither does good.
Perhaps
you may be saying to yourself, "Then wouldn’t we be better if we couldn't
choose at all." Would we? Do you really wish you were a
robot? Or a slave? Do you realize that if you could not choose you could
not give and receive love? After all, real love is a matter of a
choice. If people truly love each other they choose each other over
others. In fact, they even choose each other over their individual selves.
The
ability to choose results in the ability to love and be loved. It also results
in the ability to hate and be hated. God did not create hatred, but He
gave us free will which means we have the ability to hate. He created
life and gave us the ability to choose life and receive life. That also
means that we have the ability to choose death and to be victimized by the
choices that others make. Still, it is better to love and suffer
hatred then to be incapable of ever experiencing love. And it is better
to suffer the effects of death than never to live.
So then,
how do we understand death? Death is due to the decision for evil we all
suffer from. To fight death we have to choose life. At the same
time, we recognize that ultimately we will all die, but if we have worked for
what is good and right, our death will only be physical. We shall live
forever with God.
Death
doesn't just happen. Nor is it God's will. It is the effect of evil
in the world brought about by the ability to choose. God does not want
anyone to die, but He does want us to be able to choose life, and to be able to
choose love, even if this means that we can also choose hatred and death. And
remember, God took the very thing that keeps us from him – death – and turned
it to be the thing that brings us to eternal life. Jesus’ chose his own death
to bring us life forever with him.
It is no
coincidence that Jesus was a healer. He knew the reality of suffering and death
caused by human sinfulness, so he chose to alleviate it whenever possible.
Sometimes healing came about because of the sick person’s own faith, as with
the woman with the hemorrhage. Sometimes it was due to the intercession of
someone else, like with Jairus’ daughter. Other times it was for the glory of
God, as with the raising of Lazarus. But every time Jesus healed out of
compassion. He chose to use the person’s suffering for something good. Jesus
always chose life over death.
It’s a bit
more complicated than a bumper sticker, but then, most important things are.
But I find that phrase, “Choose Life” to be very comforting, because it gives
me hope that no matter what the world throws my way, I still have a choice.
Life is mine to embrace or mine to throw away.
As Mother
Teresa once said,
Life
is an opportunity, benefit from it.
Life
is beauty, admire it.
Life
is bliss, taste it.
Life
is a dream, realize it.
Life
is a challenge, meet it.
Life
is a duty, complete it.
Life
is a game, play it.
Life
is a promise, fulfill it.
Life
is sorrow, overcome it.
Life
is a song, sing it.
Life
is a struggle, accept it.
Life
is a tragedy, confront it.
Life
is an adventure, dare it.
Life
is luck, make it.
Life
is too precious, do not destroy it.
Life
is life, fight for it.
