Thursday after Ash Wednesday
“Here, then, I have today set before you life and prosperity, death and doom. If you obey the commandments of the LORD, your God, which I enjoin on you today, loving him, and walking in his ways, and keeping his commandments, statutes and decrees, you will live and grow numerous, and the LORD, your God, will bless you in the land you are entering to occupy.” Deuteronomy 30:15-16
Then he said to all, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” Luke 9:23-24
Piety
O Lord, I do not know what to ask you. You alone know my real needs, and you love me more than I even know how to love. Enable me to discern my true needs which are hidden from me. I ask for neither cross nor consolation; I wait in patience for you. My heart is open to you. For your great mercy's sake, come to me and help me. Put your mark on me and heal me, cast me down and raise me up. Silently I adore your holy will and your inscrutable days. I offer myself in sacrifice to you and put all my trust in you. I desire only to do your will. Teach me how to pray and pray in me, yourself. 
--Vasily Drosdov Philaret, c. 1780 - 1867
Study
When it all boils down, the ultimate action each of us take in deciding which path to follow in our spiritual life, is the act of choosing.
Sometimes, we have a stark choice to make as Moses outlined in today’s first reading. Those stark choices are between something that is seen as inherently good and something else which is evil or bad by nature. In a society that is beset by a political and cultural red state vs. blue state duality, we might like to think that every choice is so cut and dried. However, the majority of the choices we face are not as simple and straightforward as Yankees vs. Red Sox, Tastes great vs. less filling, red state vs. blue state.
In scripture, we get this dichotomy every where. The good thief vs. the bad thief. Cain vs. Able. The Prodigal Son vs. his Stay-at-Home Brother. Don’t forget Mary vs. Martha. That is where discernment comes in – choosing between two goods. Should I allow my ill mother to remain in her own apartment living independently or help her move into a nursing home where she will be well cared for by a staff devoted to her well being. The choice is not independence vs. freedom alone. It also is professional quality care vs. personal lower quality care. Both have something good to offer. Our dilemma is choosing what is best.
Action
We must strive to choose the better part. Sometimes, as we learn from Luke’s Gospel today, the better part may not always look like the best, most logical choice. “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”
Every choice may not be as momentous as the one before it or the next one, but every day we have to discern which is the best part.
What choices will you face during this Lenten season?
