OUR DECISIONS: THE OUTCOME OF OUR LIVES

READINGS: SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Ordinary Time, Year C, the readings reflect on freedom and how that calls us to responsibility, holiness, and social integrity. God gives choice, but never permission to harm, and offers grace but never excuses irresponsibility and injustice.

The 1st reading begins with a startling affirmation: “If you choose, you can keep the commandments.” This is not about perfection but about refusing to be a victim of fate or a prisoner of instincts. The grace of God does not erase our will. Rather, it strengthens it. So, no matter where we have been, we can choose the good, resist evil, and shape our lives in value and virtue. In order words, we are not defined by our past, nor trapped by our impulses, nor powerless before the pressures of society. Our present choices define who we become.

According to the passage, “God has set before us fire and water”, “life and death”. We are not passive observers of our own lives. We can choose the good, resist what harms, and take responsibility for shaping the moral climate of our lives. Every decision we make tilts the direction of our lives toward life or toward loss. Whatever we choose will shape us, not as punishment, but as consequence. Life will always bend in the direction of our decisions.

Encouragingly, the passage says, “If you trust in God, you shall live.” Trust here is a disposition of the heart that says: “I will not let fear dictate my choices, nor let the world’s pressure toss me around, nor compromise my integrity for comfort”. Understood in this way, trust becomes a fertile ground for the growth of courage, an anchor of steadfastness in a crazy world, a lens that sees beyond immediate gratification, and a grounding in righteousness even when the world normalizes shortcuts, cynicism, or self-protection.

The passage concludes by insisting, “No one does God command to act unjustly, and to none has he given the license to sin.” God gives no one permission to harm, exploit, or diminish others. Many a time, wrongdoing is often excused as “just how things are”, “everyone does it”, “that’s how the system works”, or “I had no choice”. This passage cuts through these excuses and insists that God never blesses injustice, exploitation, corruption, abuse of power, discrimination, violence, dishonesty, and systems that crush the poor or silence the vulnerable.

My friends, holiness is not merely personal; it is social. The commandments are not only about private morality; they are about public righteousness. The commandments are not a threat, but an invitation to recognize the weight of our freedom, the power of our choices, and the grace that accompanies us on the journey. It is a call to recognize that God sets life before us repeatedly, and in each moment, we are invited to choose what leads to wholeness and integrity, and to help build a world where God’s goodness can be seen and felt.

May the good Lord grant us such a grace.