Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So often we’re nudged in the direction of a false dichotomy. That phrase, false dichotomy, might sound foreign, might even sound like an obscure body part, but it’s the wrong assertion that there are only two choices. For example, a person might say, “You have to vote for a Republican or a Democrat,” when, in fact, there are other political parties for whom you can vote. Or, less weighty, you have to decide whether or not you can put pineapple on pizza. As I tend to be the pop culture reference guy, it’s like Anakin in “Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith” saying to Obi Wan, “‘If you’re not with me, then you’re my enemy.’”
But this is not just St. Paul. It’s the overarching theme in the Scriptures, from Genesis to Revelation. In Genesis, after God creates everything good, culminating in the creation of man and woman in His image, our first parents have life. They are living in the grace of God. But then, Eve, followed by Adam, disobey God; they sin. And by sinning, they welcome death into the world. They are expelled from the Garden of Eden, and separated from the Tree of Life, so that they experience death.
And so throughout Genesis, we see that when evil is allowed to fester, it leads to death. Think of the Flood and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. But, when people follow God, they find life. Think of Abram leaving Ur because God calls him to go to Canaan, and then becoming Abraham, the father of many nations. The same could be said for Exodus, where God leads His people from slavery to sin in Egypt to freedom in following His law in the Promised Land. Of course, throughout the journey, some disobey God, and they find death. While others, like Joshua and Caleb, follow God, even when unpopular, and they enter the Promised Land.
This same overarching theme repeats itself in the Books of Joshua and Judges, and then with the Kings of Israel. The prophetic books are basically warnings from God through His prophets to live according to God’s will, because if they continue in their sin, they will die. This culminates in the dispersion of the Northern Kingdom of Israel after they start worshiping false gods and oppressing those for whom God has a special love: widows and orphan; and the exile of the Southern Kingdom of Judah to Babylon after they, too, engage in idolatry and mistreatment of the poor and vulnerable.
Of course, nowhere does this dichotomy appear clearer than with our Lord, who calls Himself, “‘the Way and the Truth and the Life.’” To follow Him is to have life; to reject Him is to choose death. The Savior even takes our rejection and the consequence of that rejection–death–upon Himself in His crucifixion, but because He was faithful to God He rises on the third day. And the rest of the New Testament unpacks that choice between life and death, and helps those who follow the Lord to know what choosing life looks like to the nascent Church. The Acts of the Apostles, St. Paul’s epistles, the epistles of St. Peter, St. Jude, and St. John all talk about how we can have eternal life and reject the death of sin.
And at the end of the Bible in the Book of Revelation, we see the cosmic battle between good and evil, a battle that God wins convincingly. But the Spirit also warns the churches that they have to continue to follow God to have that life. It was not enough to choose life once or earlier; life must be chosen each day. In the end, sin and death are defeated forever, and the fullness of the reign of God shines forth, with eternal life for those who remained faithful (and eternal punishment for those who rejected God).
So which do we choose: life or death? By our fruits, Christ tells us, you can tell what we choose. Each time we sin, especially grave sins, we invite death into our lives. Each time we follow God, we invite eternal life into our lives. Indeed, though we often think of the judgment as Christ telling us where to go, either to Hell, or to Purgatory or Heaven, really we make that choice each day of our lives. While the just are surprised that they served Christ through service to the poor, and the wicked are likewise surprised that they ignored Christ through ignoring the poor, they knew that they had served or ignored the poor. In that way, their salvation or damnation was not a surprise, because they knew their choices, and whether or not they choose to do follow what God had instructed for eternal life. Sometimes it was one act of following the Lord at the end of one’s life, like St. Dismas, the good thief, who received paradise for his defense of Christ crucified. At other times it was more choices for the Lord, with some rejections sprinkled in, like St. Peter. Or, in a negative sense, one great act of betrayal from Judas led him to despair of any chance of salvation. But Dismas nor Peter nor Judas was ignorant of the choices they made and how each could affect eternal salvation.
So where will we come out in this great drama and battle between life and death? By baptism Christ claimed us for Himself and eternal life, and gives us the grace to stay faithful to the choices of life each day. Each day the enemy works to enslave us once more to death. Neither Christ nor the devil chooses for us. We choose if we want death or life. Praised be to God who gives us all the graces necessary so that we can accept the gift that salvation is, won for us by Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit is God, for ever and ever.
