Day 8 (Mar 5)
– Making Intentional Choices
Day 8 (Mar 5)
Making Intentional Choices
What would you choose?
Audio (in Cantonese)
Audio (in Mandarin)
English
“We cannot have it both ways; if we are free, we are responsible; if we are not responsible, we are not free.”
To be able to make choices freely is God's great gift to humankind. “Freedom characterizes properly human acts. It makes the human being responsible for acts of which he is the voluntary agent. His deliberate acts properly belong to him.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1745)
In an Angelus address, Pope Benedict XVI mentioned that Jesus' use of parables demands the effort of interpretation, challenges the mind but also freedom of those who listen. The pope explains further: “God's true 'Parable' is Jesus himself, his Person who, in the sign of humanity, hides and at the same time reveals his divinity. In this manner God does not force us to believe in him but attracts us to him with the truth and goodness of his incarnate Son: love, in fact, always respects freedom.”
True love towards somebody always prompts us to make intentional choices for his greatest benefit, regardless of the cost that is to be paid.
REFLECTION:
Do I exercise my freedom in such a way as a response to the generosity of God to me,
or is it always based on selfish motives?
