Every minute, of every day, we have a choice. Every choice has a consequence – good or bad – but it is a choice. It is our free will. God made us this way, for better or for worse. And so as we go through life, we’re faced with all kinds of choices.
Some choices are big.
Do I take this new job and quit my old one? Do I move my family across the country? Do we have that next child? Do I ask that girl to marry me, or do I answer the calling for religious life?
And the list goes on and on. These are the big choices in life.
But the choices that make the biggest difference in our daily life, and the lives of others are not the big choices. It’s the small ones. It’s those choices we make in the blink of an eye, without really thinking, when we’re just living life. It’s those choices we make when no one is around, when no one is looking.
Do I fudge the numbers on the business report? Do I not test the pipes to ensure they don’t leak before accepting payment, because I’ve got to get to my next job?
Do I steal time and money from my employer, or not meet my commitments because I just don’t like the work, or who I work for? Do I choose not to do those tasks because it’s boring?
Do I drive a little faster? Do I get behind the wheel, after having one too many drinks? Or let my anger rage when getting cutoff in traffic? Do I let the harmless flirting with that person at the bar go too far?
It’s all about the small choices. Those moments where we think they are meaningless in the grand scheme of things, those moments when no one is looking and holding us accountable. Every choice has an impact. And every choice can chnage your life in an instant – good or bad.
In these times – what choices do you make?
In the first reading today, around 750 B.C. or so, God was sick and tired of the bad choices the Israelites were making. They were lying, cheating, and stealing against each other. God was fed up. It sounds a lot like today. There is a lot of anger and resentment out there. A lot of fear, and envy, and greed. A lot of lust. A lot of pride.
As a society, here in the U.S. and around the world, it’s like we are a time bomb just waiting to go off. And so people are out to get each other, and do whatever means necessary to win. We see this in the corporate world, we see this in government, we see this in sports, we see this in our schools. And way too often, we see this in our homes.
All of this affects our choices, and all of this is a result of our choices. Again, it’s those small, insignificant ones we make every day that have the biggest impact.
Let’s move a few hundred years forward from the time of Amos to the setting of the Gospel reading today. A man is getting fired from his job for squandering money. His boss gives him the news, and the man thinks to himself, “what do I do now?”
Is this 33 AD, or is it 2016 AD? Same story, same struggle. Different time.
Surely the man made some bad choices, but losing your job, regardless of the reasons – it hurts. It’s a rejection that hurts deep down. Maybe he has a family to support, and now he is wondering how he’s going to make ends meet because his reputation is going to be shot. No one is going to pay me to do work for them, he thinks.
And what makes it worse for this man is that he knows that it is his fault. Throughout this time, I’m confident he knew the right thing to do, as most of us do. But for some reason, he made bad choices over and over, which led to his firing. A familiar story.
And so the man has another choice. Do I totally stick it to my boss and steal even more from him before I leave, just to get him back? Or do I think of my future, and do something that is right and charitable towards others before I move on? He’s got a split second to make this choice. He started the day as any other day, and then his boss comes to him, out of the blue.
How does he respond?
He meets with his boss’ debtors, and makes agreements with them asking them to only pay what is due to his boss. He forgoes his own profit, his own commission. He sacrifices a last remaining bit of money he can make, surely a substantial sum, to build bridges and create trust with people, and regain some integrity rather than burning those bridges.
Fast forward 2000 years to today. What we read in the Gospel is a real world story that happens every day. Except too frequently, the charitable act is not what is chosen.
One big thing I’ve learned in life, and I’ve had to relearn it from time to time, is to simply give your best effort at whatever the task, even if it is meaningless and mundane. Especially if it seems meaningless and mundane. It may sound simple, and it is. But it is in the mundane where we serve God the most.
Another lesson… Whatever it is, always try to do it the right way, even if that way maybe takes a little longer, costs a little more, or is a little harder. Use the experience, think of others down the line who will be impacted, and don’t cut corners.
I had this exact talk with my son just the other day, and Jesus says it perfectly.
“The person who is trustworthy in very small matters is also trustworthy in great ones;
and the person who is dishonest in very small matters is also dishonest in great ones.
If, therefore, you are not trustworthy with dishonest wealth, who will trust you with true wealth?
If you are not trustworthy with what belongs to another, who will give you what is yours?”
I had this talk with my son because he wanted to cut corners on his homework. But I also had this talk because I see a growing trend among society, especially our youth leaving high school and college, where they often don’t make the choice to do the mundane, they don’t want to do that work which seems meaningless, those dirty jobs whatever they may be, because perhaps they feel entitled to something else, or don’t like the job, or have a conflict with those in authority. Too often there is no thought about doing what is right, it’s only about the now and how it affects me.
Do the task you have at hand, and do it the right way, to the best of your ability.
And this applies to us as Catholics. All too often, we don’t choose to put the hard work into our faith. Instead we make choices that fit our model of what we want Catholicism to be, not Christ’s Universal Church. We choose to go to Mass when we want, and Confession? I don’t need it that often because I really don’t sin that bad, and I’ve made the choice in my mind about what constitutes a sin anyway. I can choose to do whatever I want, as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone, right? And the same for everyone else, right?
Except our choices do have an impact. They affect ourselves and those around us, in ways we cannot comprehend. There is a connectedness to everything in life, throughout humanity and this earth, amidst our very souls glued together by God’s Spirit.
Our choices do matter, especially those small ones we make on a minute by minute basis. They can trip the dominoes in life, affecting people down the line, and really layout our course for eternity.
Pray for God’s grace to help you make the right choices, and for others to make the right choices – in your families, in our schools and workplaces, the leaders of our government, the leaders of our Church, and so on. Pray that people throughout the world make good choices in the best interest of others.
But it really starts with each one of us in the choices we make today. And so I leave you with a small prayer I say every morning when I sit down to start my day, in hopes that it helps you in the choices you face:
Lord Jesus, I pray to You.
Help me to seek Your will in all that I do today,
and help me to do everything in Your Name and Your Glory, so that in all things,
God may be glorified.
Amen.
AM 8:4-7; PS 113; 1 TM 2:1-8; LK 16:1-13
