Choosing Life in Christ.
When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into boats and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus.
The crowds behave like the merchant who found a pearl of great price, or the man who found a treasure buried in a field. They were like a man in love looking for his beloved. They had discovered Jesus and wanted him, but they didn’t really know him yet.
They wanted from him perishable food—which he could give them—but he could also give them –and is willing to give us– food that “endures for eternal life” and will fully and always satisfy hunger and thirst.
He himself gives it to us. This food is He.
But we must “work for” this food that is imperishable and makes us imperishable. The work is to believe in Jesus Christ.
For all of us who say we are Catholics, there seem to be three options available to us when it comes to how we lead our lives.
The first way we can lead our lives is to do whatever seems beneficial to us. This is attractive, but our twisted tendencies incline us to want what is not good and to act badly to get it. This is the way of the “cafeteria Catholic” who picks and chooses by himself what doctrines of faith or morals to embrace or reject.
However, the analogy that says the faith is like a cafeteria is not the best because everything in a cafeteria is real food and drink, while our rejection of Catholic faith and morals may be deadly poison. Remember that our moral decisions lead us to either salvation or destruction.
The second way we can live is by way of obligation. We try to do everything the Church asks of us out of obedience to obligation. We go to Mass because the Church says we have to. We go to Confession because we are supposed to. We don’t commit some sin because we are afraid of going to hell. This is good but insufficient.
Initially, it may be very good for us to put ourselves under obedience as a good discipline to get our lives in order.
Thus, when our emotions and passions incline us to all kinds of evil, we should do what our faith and reason tell us is right, even though our desires say something else. This is rejecting the “old self.”
The third way we might live is perfect. It is doing what the Blessed Trinity wants us to do, freely, as a child of God, assisted by the abundant graces we receive in the Sacraments and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It is living as a friend of God.
This third way can apply to everything we do all day long every day. It can be phrased as, “I choose to do X because I am a friend, a child of God.”
This is choosing life in Christ.
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