Praise be to Jesus and Mary.
The Church certainly does not joke around when it comes to the eternal salvation of its children.
Just yesterday to kick off Lent, she reminded us that we are but dust,
and to dust we shall one day return.
Today she reminds us that if we want to avoid eternal perdition,
that if we want to avoid eternal damnation,
when we turn back to that dust from which we came,
we have to live in a certain fashion.
We have to obey our Lord's will and the commandments.
And these commandments, they order our relations with God,
with our neighbor, with ourselves, with all creatures,
according to God's will and design.
That is why we hear today in the first reading,
Today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and doom.
If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, you will live,
and the Lord God will bless you.
If, however, you turn away your hearts and will not listen,
I tell you now that you will certainly perish.
We have the free will, we have freedom to choose life and prosperity or death and doom,
and we have the time, a long time, forty days, to reflect on which we prefer and how we use our freedom,
whether we want to choose life or whether we want to choose the way of perdition.
Whichever we prefer will be given to us.
It depends on our free will and our choice and on that topic, on our freedom and the topic of freedom and how we use it.
One of the fathers of the church, St. Gregory of Nyssa, says that the soul, our soul, which we all have,
shows its majesty and excellence by its self-control and freedom.
When it is governed by its own will, this action resembles nothing so much as the activity of a king.
Human nature was created to rule over all other creatures through its likeness to the king of the universe
and was made as a living image which partakes of the dignity and the name of the archetype of our God.
In the Greek word, archetypos, you know, who's the original,
model, on whom we model ourselves, you know, as the king, as God, like a king, rules over the universe.
We too, created in His image and likeness, are created to rule over the universe in collaboration with God.
Our nature, human nature, was created to rule over all other creatures, not to be ruled.
And sin is exactly that, the opposite of freedom.
It enslaves us to creatures.
Because St. Peter reminds us, a person is a slave of whatever overcomes him.
So one Bible commentary still goes on and says that along with the free will that was given to us that makes us like God,
God also gave us the commandments.
And this law of God does not coerce human freedom because it does not restrain man's ability to choose,
but it does show him how to make the best use of his free will.
The commandments do not force us to obey them.
Quentin?
As a matter of fact, most people, unfortunately, do not even obey the commandments, maybe even do not know them.
They simply show us how to make the best use of our free will.
We can use the example of just driving out on the roads.
Road signs, you know, do not limit our liberty any more than the commandments do,
and the commandments do not limit our liberty any more than road signs do.
Both ensure that we get where we're supposed to be going and that we avoid accidents along the way,
especially deadly accidents,
which could occur.
The true freedom that God gave us is not the ability to choose evil.
That's something evil, you know, that's just a flaw of the will that it can choose something that is evil.
It's just a defect of our own created finite will because evil goes against God and in the end against ourselves.
Freedom is the ability to choose what is good autonomously, to choose it willingly and knowingly.
Just as on a road we're free, if we want to call that freedom,
to run stop signs and red lights and to go 150 miles per hour,
if you want to call that freedom,
but we might have to pay a ticket if we do so.
We might run into an accident.
We might lose our lives by doing so.
So we are free to disobey the commandments,
but we're going to have to pay the consequences of acting in such a way.
Keeping God's law, the Bible commentary goes on,
in particular situations can be difficult, even extremely difficult.
And we know that martyrs had to give their very lives,
in order to remain faithful to the law of God.
They had to prefer putting their lives down on the line,
giving up their lives rather than offending God by violating His commandments.
But obeying the law of God is never impossible.
Some people believe it is.
They make excuses in order not to obey it,
because they do not obey the law of God.
They call it impossible to obey.
Martin Luther, I've said this many a time in homilies here before,
used to say to his disciples,
sin hard, don't give it a second thought.
Sin hard, but believe even harder.
It goes without saying that he did not observe the commandments.
He hated them.
Since for him it was impossible, quote unquote, to observe them,
he concluded that it was necessary to sin,
and through God's fault, he used to say.
So he gave himself to all kinds of moral depravity,
and recommended that others do likewise,
saying, sin hard, believe even harder.
You know, offend God without remorse,
he used to say.
In the end, it's God's fault that you're a sinner,
but believe that He will forgive you just the same.
This, of course, is blasphemy.
Heresy and blasphemy.
The Church instead teaches in the Council of Trent that
God does not command the impossible,
but in commanding, He admonishes you to do what you can
and to pray for what you cannot,
and He gives His aid to enable you.
His commandments are not burdensome,
and His yoke is easy.
And His yoke is easy, and His burden light.
God never commands the impossible,
but in commanding, He admonishes that we do what we can,
what is in our power,
and to pray, and to pray to Him for help
in order to do what we cannot,
what exceeds our strength.
And He gives us His aid to enable us to do so.
So before us are life and death,
good and evil,
you can choose which one you want,
and that's why a mortal sin is called a mortal sin,
because any grave violation of the commandments
done with full awareness and deliberate consent
is a choice of death,
of death in this life,
because it takes away grace from our souls,
and of death in the next life,
of the sufferings of hell,
which are the reward of sin.
That's why St. John and the Church remind us,
the best way,
the way we may be sure that we know Him,
that we love our Lord,
is to keep His commandments,
because whoever says,
I know Him,
I love Him,
but does not keep His commandments,
is a liar,
and the truth
is not in him.
So it's only right that in Lent,
the Church remind us of this,
at the beginning of Lent,
if we want this Lent to make sense,
we just have to reflect on this,
how do I live?
Which do I choose?
Do I obey the commandments?
Do I choose life by obeying the commandments?
So let's just conclude with an anecdote,
an example that there was a time ago,
the writings of a Hungarian bishop,
Bishop Toth,
were a lot more popular,
they've kind of been forgotten now.
In his homilies,
he brought up a lot of these examples,
and one such example today
that I want to adduce to you
is that of Alexander the Great,
the Emperor,
who lived around 2,500 years ago,
2,300 years ago.
Once it happened,
he was also a general,
that it was reported to him
that one of his soldiers
had behaved in a cowardly way in a battle.
What is your name?
Alexander the Great
asked the cowardly soldier.
Alexander the Great
said to Alexander,
He answered.
The Emperor said to him,
Do you know
that this is my name too?
Either change your name
or your behavior.
Either change your name
or your behavior.
Why the example?
Because to how many of us
could Christ say the same thing?
You call yourself a Christian,
and yet,
how do you live?
Do you live like a Christian?
Do you live like an authentic Christian
in your private life,
in your public life?
life? Do you live your faith courageously? And if you don't, either change your name
or your life. Lent is a time for us to decide, do we want to change our name or do we want
to change our life? Do we want to live as authentic 100% thorough Christians or do we
want to change our names and become something else? You know, we were created to govern
and not, you know, to govern and to rule over all other creatures, not to be ruled by them,
not to be enslaved by them. You know, that is the point and the aim of the commandments.
God gave us the commandments to rule over the earth and to use creatures as a way of
arriving at perfection, at glory, at sanctity, as a way to arrive at God himself. And by
giving us the commandments, he never commands something that is impossible. And even when
it's difficult, he commands and admonishes us to do what we can and to pray for what
we cannot, and he will give us his aid to enable us.
So if we put these words into practice this Lent, we too will experience how Christ's
yoke is easy, his burden is sweet and light, and by observing his commandments, we will
have life, eternal life. Amen.
Praised be Jesus and Mary.