In our modern world, many focus on their right to choose how to live, while overlooking that the true foundation of that choice is God’s gift of free will. The Modern Catholic Dictionary defines choice as the “[f]ree judgment arising from reason; a decision to select one out of a number of available courses of action; an act of the free will choosing a particular means to some preconceived purpose or end.”  As we journey through our lives, we are free to choose how to live and we can choose to place God at the center. 

When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane waiting for the time of His suffering to begin, He asked to be set free from the torment to come. Jesus asked that the cup be taken from Him. In that moment, He could have just chosen to walk out the back gate. Consider for a moment, how many of us, knowing what was to come, would have simply made the choice to leave.  

Jesus had a human side, and it must have been hard to accept what God had asked of Him. Choosing to endure the pain of His pending death, Jesus showed us that choosing Him frees us from the grip of death but may also subject us to ridicule. It is hard to understand how God’s gift of free will, the right to choose Him or not, has been turned into a rally cry for us to become our own gods. 

Jesus chose death to conquer its finality and open the door to paradise. What was closed by original sin was now open. When we choose God, we choose life and when we choose to be away from Him, we end our lives. At every Catholic Mass and at the Funeral Mass, we celebrate life and pray for the souls of the departed. We recognize that Jesus conquered death and if we follow Him then we too may enjoy the paradise His suffering brought to us.  

God did not give us free will so that we could become gods onto ourselves but to allow us the freedom to live our lives knowing that in the end Jesus is waiting. Our Catholic cemeteries are filled with people who chose to express their belief in the truth, that God sent His only Son who died for our sins so that we could be free from death. Choose wisely.  

God Bless as we continue to celebrate the Risen Christ.  

Andrej N. Lah