When we live under the Law our choices most often coincide with keeping the Sabbath, not committing adultery, not lying or stealing, and not coveting our neighbor’s wife or possessions.  That is what it means to follow religion.  No one who lives under the Law, no one who lives merely in religion will receive the Blessing.  The Law is good and following the Law is admirable, but no man is justified by the Law.  Religion doesn’t save.  Faith in Christ is the only road to righteousness.

            Now the cornerstone of St. Paul’s gospel is “the just shall live by faith.”  And in Galatians 5:6 St. Paul tells us that the only thing that avails is “faith working by love.”  Sound faith, faith that succeeds in attaining the Blessing, is a faith that makes love choices.  We can choose to stay on the broad road, the road of living under the Law or we can begin to narrow the path by making love choices.  When we begin to love God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our strength and begin to truly love our neighbor as our self, we get closer and closer to achieving our goal which is to receive the Blessing, the very Spirit of God himself. 

            For me when I began reading the gospels I fell in love with Jesus and I was also terrified of him.  On the one hand he promised eternal life to those who came to him but he also promised eternal damnation to those who didn’t.  Both, a great desire to be like him and a great fear of hell propelled me to make the most important choice of my life, I gave myself to him and confessed it to my sister.  That love choice brought me to a direct experience of God.  More choices rapidly followed.  I abandoned the world for him.  I tried to show my love for him by giving away my possessions, fasting, and leaving everything behind, but that was not the answer.  We do not get the Blessing by works.  We get the Blessing by faith.  I devoured the word of God, received the gift of tongues, and in spite of all that, I had a complete nervous breakdown.  Being bipolar, it took me five years to stabilize on medicine.  I got married, and entered the Catholic church.  I facilitated the rite of Christian initiation in two churches for ten years and then other choices followed.  I entered the diaconate and spent four years in study only to have a relapse and I bowed out.  I left the church and when my father could no longer care for himself, I did what was necessary for him.  But it was only when God had me all to himself did I receive the Blessing. 

            Love choices make all the difference.  It is what you do for Christ and how you treat your neighbor, having your gaze on pleasing God by living by faith that makes all the difference.  Do you know what it is to make a love choice?  Do you know what it is to sacrifice the natural life for the spiritual one?  Do you know how to get alone with God?  Do you hear his still small voice?  Are you still living under the Law? 

            Narrow the path.  Narrow the road.  Enter the strait gate.  Receive the Blessing.

Do it for God.

Amen