Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time
The basic choices of life
Then many of his disciples who were listening said, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this, he said to them, “Does this shock you? What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe and the one who would betray him. And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father.” As a result of this, many (of) his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him. Jesus then said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?” Simon Peter answered him, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.” Jn 6,60-69
Last Sunday we had lunch at Marina and Maurizio’s, two friends of ours from Turin. Around the table, we discussed the basic choices in life and how these should not be many, because men need to keep some degrees of freedom in order to comply with the ever new proposals that the Lord and everyday life put before them. At one point, to illustrate the concept, I had to state that my basic choices had been two: Jesus Christ in the heavenly sphere and Anna Maria at the earthly level, when we got married. I could also have added my career as an engineer, since it had been a choice. A life established on these points is a very stable and secure one, such as mine have been over the years. Thank God, Jesus Christ, as Lord, and Anna Maria, as a wife, have never been in conflict with each other, because she has made choices equivalent to mine, but it could have happened, and it happened to some friends of ours. What we can do when your spouse does not share the faith in the Lord? We can only pray, wait and grow in ourselves our love for each other. At a certain point, even if the love for the Lord and the love for the spouse are both unique, the problem must be solved, because they are not irreconcilable: they relate to different spheres. Both, however, are jealous: like a good wife, “the Lord …. is a jealous God”(Jos 24,19), he does not admit wrongdoing.
Those who really choose the Lord, with time passing by, leave the choices of the flesh, which are the opposite of the ones of the spirit. “Now the works of the flesh are obvious: immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions, occasions of envy, drinking bouts, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. In contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness” (Gal 5,19-22). Similarly, those who choose the married life and fully live it exclude other women from their life: with God’s help, it is natural that it happens, because the spousal love is by nature exclusive. Nowadays, however, we live in a society that permits divorce and for every marriage which dissolves there are two people that could undermine the married life of others. What to do? The only solution is a clear and definitive choice for the Lord. It happens, then, that the two feelings for the Lord and for the spouse not only do not exclude each other, but cooperate in a global fidelity, including the spiritual sphere and the family: “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life”. The choice of a profession, however, however important it may be, is not as fundamental as that of the Lord and the spouse, but as far as possible, it is good to remain faithful to it too, because in time it allows to make a better and more qualified service to the society in which we live.