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February 19, 2026We have a choice before us, and it comes down to either life or death, prosperity or doom, beatitude or damnation. The stakes are high, to say the least, and for better or worse, we have complete freedom to make that choice. God respects the freedom he endowed us with, even to the point of respecting our choice for death and doom, if we make that choice. Because, ultimately, the choice is about God himself: do we choose Him, or reject Him?
To the average Christian, it may not seem very likely that one could stray so far as to explicitly "adore and serve other gods," as Moses warns the Israelites. And yet that is still a very real risk for us today. Anything we place above the Lord our God in importance, obligation, or love, is an idol-a false god-that we elevate to take the place of God, even if in a small way. Have you ever missed Sunday Mass because you had a school game to go to? Or have you ever gone an entire day without prayer because you were studying for an exam or because a deadline was coming up at work? That might seem like a good and reasonable excuse to forgo what we owe our God, and that's just the problem: we are all too good at making these idols for ourselves. So Our Blessed Lord directs us to deny ourselves daily, because otherwise the risk is too great that our hearts will stray, little by little, and wander after self-made idols.
This can be challenging, but Moses reminds us that it's worth it, because true life is found in loving the Lord. We don't deny ourselves for nothing, we don't pick up our cross for nothing, we do it so that we may follow Him. We do it so that we can have life. to the fullest with the Lord, in abundance of divine love; something so sublimely beautiful that all the best poetry in the world can't even begin to paint that picture. And Jesus is himself no stranger to what he asks of us. He already trailed the path of self denial and cross bearing that He calls us to follow Him on, and He went much farther along that path than I wager-the grand majority of us will be called to go. Seeing where He went, we can see where we might go if we follow Him. If He calls us to walk the path He walked it's so that we can arrive at the destination He set for us: life everlasting in glory and love with Him, Our Blessed Lord.
So you have a choice: will you save your life here, or lose it for His sake? Live for yourself and you might have a comfortable life, full of luxuries and pleasures, adventures and thrills, toys and fun... and it will all end in ruin and death. Live for Him, and you will likely have a life of penance, mortification, struggle, redemptive suffering... and it will all end in unimaginable, unending, inexpressible joy, in life everlasting with the fullness of divine love. God respects your freedom to choose, what will you choose daily?