Today's gospel, Thursday after Ash Wednesday, calls us to a fork in the road. Choice! Real choice!
Consequences of choices! Don't that last few expressions depict what true love is all about? In the gospel we read about the human Jesus, the son of Mary, Son of God and very specific choices he made as a human being. "Father, yes, I will live out your will and offer my life to you for the forgiveness of the sins of humanity." Isn't this a genuine choice? Isn't this true love for others?
The life of Jesus was and continues to be a model for so many Christians. We are reminded that we have the options for choice in our lives. We stand every day at crossroads everyday and more often than once. Life is making choices. And think about this: choices form who you are and what you become! The choice not to exercise may have very definite consequences. The choice to sin has its impact on our lives and usually others.
St. Valentine, and there seem to have been a number of St Valentines in the 3rd and 4th centuries. I have found a website you might find interesting for so many reasons ... many choices to read and study on this particular site, Catholic On Line. You can read about St Valentine and enjoy the picture of several beautiful roses, a small gift to you courtesy of the designers of the website. Read about this man's choice...his love for his faith so sincere that he was martyred because the chose God rather than a local emperor.
Today, when we are give cards and flowers, taking grandmoms, moms, wives or girlfriends to dinner, thin of a few moments about the many choices they have made in their lifetimes and what choices there must have been to make them the wonderful persons you are honoring. Thank God for them and their obvious love for you. Recall the choices, the sacrifices, required of them to become the singular person that each of them is. In so many instances their choices were driven by their faith, by their love of God who inspired them when they stood at a moment of choice at a particular crossroad in their lives. Genuine love is not easy nor is it cheap. Recall Jesus and St. Valentine today when you muse about this particular day.
