This passage from Sirach begins this way, “When God, in the beginning, created man, he made him subject to his own free choice” (v. 14). There it is—the central truth of our human existence. God, in his infinite wisdom, gave us the gift of free will. It is, in one sense, the image and likeness of God that we are made in. It is our greatest blessing, but as we all know, since the Fall of Adam and Eve through the misuse of this gift, we have been burdened with the tendency to turn this incredible gift into our curse. The evidence of this is all around us, and it is both public and personal.
Our present time in history is full of turmoil, division, and war, all resulting in great fear and suffering at the personal and societal levels. Social media, the news, even personal conversation, is often filled with the language of insult and threats of every kind. We see it at the level of government and the level of the street. It often feels as though all sense of balance, self-control, or any measure of governing reason has been tossed aside and carried away on waves of emotional verbiage and the chaos of violence. Though this is not the first time in history that such an environment has been present, the fact is that this is our time. And the unspoken, and more often than not, unrecognized truth is that all of this is a matter of freely willed choices made, not just at the levels of power, but by every one of us.
This chaos that we are in at this moment in time is the making of all of us at every level, private and communal. This is why pointing the finger of blame, which we are so ready and eager to do, is a matter of either ignorance or dishonesty, for it does not recognize, or denies, our own choices and their merit or lack of merit. Such behavior is not a matter of honest self-reflection in the light of the Gospel or God’s wisdom and grace. To choose to keep the commandments, each of us must ask ourselves constantly, in every situation, questions like: “Do I know and understand the will of God in his commandments? Am I personally, intelligently, honestly, and willingly choosing, with the help of God’s grace, to keep those commandments in all circumstances?” Am I going to scripture to reflect on the word of God? Am I listening to the Holy Spirit, or am I listening to the spirit of the world? Do I recognize and accept that God’s Law is greater than that of man? Or, is my attention more often distracted and drawn hither and yon by lesser goods? Are my intentions aimed not at God’s desires, but at my own, or by my group’s desires?
In reality, only God is perfect in his wisdom; we are not. This is why it is so important for us who desire to be known as Christians, true disciples of Christ, to steep ourselves in the Gospels, in the life of Jesus, in his words and deeds, and his example to us. This is our first duty: to come to know, to love, and to serve God in this world, so that we might be able to be with Him in Paradise for all eternity. To know and to love God’s commandments is the greatest source of our ability to choose rightly in all things. Every action, every decision before us must be undertaken in the eternal light of God, not the bright, effervescent, dazzling, and blinding lights of the world’s wisdom. In knowing God’s commandments and believing in them, we are more able to “choose to keep his commandments, [for] it is loyalty to do his will” (v. 15). As the Spirit reveals to Sirach in this passage, “There are set before you fire and water; to whichever you choose, stretch forth your hand. Before man are life and death, whichever he chooses shall be given him” (vs. 16-17). Choose life!
The truth is that no human being is perfect, yet we so often presume perfection, claiming that our truth is THE truth and the other’s truth is ‘perfectly’ false, indeed, evil. We are not the source of what is perfectly good, perfectly true, or perfectly beautiful; this belongs to God alone. Because of our universally common misuse of free will, due to things like ignorance, indifference, willfulness, pride, or fear, we are the actual source of the division, the chaos, and the violence that surrounds us. The infamous “they” are not the totality of the problems we face. All of us together bear a share in the problems we experience. Blame does not bring about the solutions we desire. Only the truth will set us free.
If we know and are loyal to God’s commandments, the first thing that would guide our choices would be the word of God, which tells us that, though we are all sinners, we are all loved by God. This knowledge would help us to see the value of the virtue of humility, which would, in turn, help us to see the opposing “other” as one who is like ourselves, who is as potentially flawed and subject to error and sin, and as good in many ways as we are ourselves. After all, they, too, are made in God’s image and likeness. Because they, too, are made in the infinite dignity of a child of God, just like me, they are to be treated just as I wish to be treated! This is the wisdom of God, a wisdom that the world does not share or profess.
This wisdom is found, among other places, in scripture, in the Gospel passage on the Two Great Commandments. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind…and your neighbor as yourself” found in Matthew 22: 36-40. Look around you, and within you. Can you see this love in the world today? Or is the world listening to a darker wisdom? Are not the opposing factions in each of the areas of division we see around us, choosing fire over water, death over life in their words and their actions? Where do I stand on these issues? Are my thoughts and words about others and the issues involved shaped more by rage and fear, rather than love, or am I moved more personally and actively by my loyalty to God’s commandments? Just solutions to all of our current problems at the personal and the societal levels will begin to arise only when more and more of us choose to remain loyal to God’s wisdom, rather than the wisdom of the world. When more of us willingly, even joyfully, begin to habitually choose God’s goodness, truth, and beauty in all things, we will begin to see more clearly the more just and effective ways to make a better world more possible. In this, we would be choosing life over death, and that would make all the difference.
Lord, grant us the wisdom and the courage to choose as you would have us choose more regularly in our lives. Teach us to see and to do your will above our own, and open our eyes to the demands of your love. We pray all of this in your name, Jesus. Amen.
SKM: below-content placeholderWhizzco for FHB