Thursday After Ash Wednesday 

Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Luke 9:22-25

Today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and doom”-Deut. 30:15

It is a dramatic statement, but oh so true. True in this sense at least – we always retain the power of choice. Even in the most horrific circumstances, where one’s liberty, independence, and even life are threatened, our freedom to choose is something that cannot be taken away.

We see this clearly in the life of Jesus. In the face of constant criticisms, persecution, dangers, and eventual arrest – he did not choose a path of ‘death’ i.e. surrender to what others wanted to impose or what the desire for safety may have offered.

Jesus chose a constant path of life because he is the PATH and the LIFE. He acted in this way because He is the WAY, he spoke and taught in this his words for he is TEACHER and the WORD rings out to us across the centuries.

We are invited, commissioned even, to keep choosing the will of God above all else. To choose to live for God means at times that we do bear a cross and are asked to carry this bravely even as we live to serve and love others in the name of Jesus.

Such crosses come in all shapes and sizes – it might take the form of personal costs and or suffering, it may be that we carry the burdens of another person, or indeed that we carry someone else through a period of their lives or simply help them live with their limitations.

Jesus knows our hearts and knows those crosses we bear for the sake of the love of Jesus and our neighbor.
As we enter the Season of Lent, we might imagine our journey to be like that of Simon of Cyrene – carrying a cross that was imposed upon us, but that we freely carry – knowing that Jesus is very close to us in such moments.

Fr Joseph Osho