I need a life!

That is what many people say, often as they lament their day-to-day existence.

A life.

That is exactly what God offers us in today’s readings.

A life... and more.

All we have to do is choose.

But we also have to open our eyes: for the life that God offers is real life, eternal life, life totally fulfilled.

What the world offers is death and distraction.

Thus says the Lord in today’s first reading (Deuteronomy 30:15-20):

Today I have set before you
life and prosperity, death and doom.

If you obey the commandments of the LORD, your God,
which I enjoin on you today,
loving him,
and walking in his ways,
and keeping his commandments, statutes and decrees,
you will live and grow numerous,
and the LORD, your God,
will bless you...

****

I call heaven and earth today to witness against you:
I have set before you life and death,
the blessing and the curse.
Choose life...!

We cannot let the world fool us with the emptiness that it calls life. We must turn from that “life” and embrace in this world the life that God offers us in and through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, as He Himself tells us in today’s Gospel (Luke 9:22-25):

If anyone wishes to come after me,
he must deny himself
and take up his cross daily
and follow me.

For whoever wishes to save his life
will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake
will save it.

What profit is there for one to gain the whole world
yet lose or forfeit himself?

We need a life.

And Christ has it.

May we choose life and follow Christ.