- First Reading: Wis 4:7–15
- Responsorial Psalm: Ps 27:1, 4, 7, 8b, 9a, 13–14
- Second Reading: Rom 5:17–21
- Gospel: Matt 25:31–46
Our lives are determined by our choices. The same situation can turn out very differently simply because of how we choose to respond.
Notice what happens in the Gospel. Both groups, the sheep and the goats, were placed in the same situations. They encountered the hungry, the stranger, the imprisoned—people in need. But one group chose to respond in charity. They didn’t recognize that Christ was present. They were just as surprised by the outcome as the goats were. Yet they chose to act in charity, and it changed everything. The other group did not. So one goes off to the reward of life, and the other to punishment. The difference lies in the choices they made.
I would argue that it is almost always our choices that make the difference. We like to see our lives as unfolding because of factors we don’t control. But in the light of eternity, it is almost always our choices that really make the difference, whatever the situation may be.
In our tradition, we speak of purgatory as a place of fire. And we hear in the Gospel that hell is a place of fire. Over the years, people have asked: Is it the same fire, or are they different fires? St. Thomas offers what many of us might find a surprising answer. He proposes that purgatory is in the same place, i.e. connected to, hell and that the same fire afflicts the damned and purifies the just. STh., App. q.1 a.2 Yet the souls in that place have made different choices.
The souls in hell suffer that punishment because of their choices, because of their disposition. They have rejected God. They have rejected charity. The fire only punishes them, and that punishment does not end. But the souls in purgatory have chosen God. They do have charity within their souls. And so the fire brings about a cleansing in them. It draws them closer to God. In this account, it is the exact same fire, yet its effects are different. The choices those people made in life are expressed in eternity.
That means that in our own lives, at every moment, we have a choice to make. Are we going to act in charity, whatever the situation, and allow the experiences of our lives to form us to be more like Christ? Are we going to embrace the sufferings that come to us and see in them opportunities for grace, a way to be transformed? Or are we going to reject charity in those moments and see nothing but burdens and punishments?
Every moment of our lives, we have to make that choice. We choose to act in charity, follow Christ, and embrace the crosses he gives us, or we reject them. All those choices come together and determine where we go in eternity. The situations themselves are going to happen. We will be given crosses. We will be given burdens. There is no way to escape them all. But we get to choose how we respond, whether those experiences work to our good or to our detriment. That choice is always ours to make.
The Christian life isn’t about having a life that looks different on the outside. However much you pray, however much you plead before God, you are not going to have the wonderful, perfect life you might hope for. You will have sufferings. You will have trials. Look throughout Christian history: on the outside, Christians don’t have better, i.e. more prosperous or comfortable, lives than anyone else. But within, through the grace of charity, they are gaining something wonderful. By their choices, they are making the world and their souls different. They are making their eternity different.
That is the choice always before us. In every situation, when we are given new challenges, new burdens, new crosses to bear, we have to choose then and there. Do I live in charity? Do I make this into something good through the grace of God? Or do I reject it? Do I allow it to tear me down and move me toward that place I do not want to go?
That is always the choice before us. And it is our choice that makes all the difference.