Choices: Homily for Sunday, September 28, 2025

Whether or not it is a big choice or a little choice, the choices we make form and shape us into persons. Will we choose the choices that lead us to God or not? Readings for Today.

Choices

At the end of the day, our lives are about choices. Some are small, some our big. Each choice, big or small, influences who it is we become, even if it is not clear to us at the time the choice is made.

Today’s readings place before us the types of important options that can shape a person. We can be generous or selfish. We can be kind or mean. We can consider others or only think of ourselves.  We can choose to follow Jesus or someone else.

The second reading identifies the types of qualities that we develop when we choose Jesus. Saint Paul tells us, “pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness.” Each quality Saint Paul mentions is a part of a pathway that makes us a disciple. 

Righteousness. Righteousness is not simply doing good things, things that are right. Righteousness can only be understood in a relationship with God. The first reading and the gospel are self-referential. 

Devotion. This also represents a quality where the reference is someone other than ourselves. The words comes from the Latin root meaning vow. At the heart of the word devotion is a vow we make. Our vow to follow Jesus.

Faith and Love are religious terms too. And they obviously are connected to a definition of God. God is love. God can only be faithful. And to recognize these qualities in ourself we need to get a glimpse of the way God is love, and God is faithful.

Patience. This is the virtue God offers to us to endure, in faith, those things that are difficult. To be able to take the long view to see how it is that God will be faithful in our lives, even when we cannot see it.

Gentleness. I do not see a quality that is more essential in today’s world than gentleness. All around us are things that seem far from gentle. We are seeking someone, or something to blame for our current state of affairs. We seek to find control in a world that is out of control.

And when we seek to cultivate these qualities the way we see becomes different. Our vision is directed to eternal life. To all that is good, true and beautiful. Our vision is turned toward Jesus.

But sometimes we do not see Jesus because Jesus often comes to us in disguise. Saint Vincent de Paul reminds us of this. “If you consider the poor in the light of faith, then you will observe that they are taking the place of the Son of God who chose to be poor.”

But when we develop those qualities that we see in the first reading and the gospel, we can become blind. And when we become blind, we fail to see Jesus. 

But it can become worse. We seek to turn our sight inwards, focused only on those things that we want, and worse yet, we justify our choices as being what they are not. We see what is not good as good. We sin.

When we see only our own comfort, we begin to view the poor as a threat. We make them criminals, villains, people who are lazy. We can see the poor as those persons who only want our stuff. They are out to get us.

And we see this all around us too. Despite the fact that Jesus tells us to welcome the stranger, we seek to blame them for our problems. Things would be ok if it were not for those who make us uncomfortable. 

But when we take on the qualities offered to us by Saint Paul, we can view the poor as the invitation to an encounter with Jesus. We make real the lessons of Matthew Chapter 25. When we are able to see the poor as the person of Jesus himself, we are placed into the environment of holiness. 

When we encounter persons like Lazurus it becomes easy to be just like the rich man. We can walk by the homeless. We can decide we cannot help the poor because we do not have enough money.

But the biggest thing we need is to put on the glasses of faith. We need to at least acknowledge the poor. We need to at least pray for them. We need to seek out ways to provide help to those agencies and services that seek to help them.

Perhaps the glasses of faith help us to see easy ways right around us to take on the qualities of faith. Maybe it means making the time to help at the Saint Margaret of Castello Center as a volunteer. Maybe it is taking the time to learn what items are needed and to seek to buy some when we go shopping.

Another way our vision can change is to learn more about those who suffer around us. What is it like to be homeless? How is it we can help? What are the problems encountered by a single parent? What things can we consider to help them in their situation and circumstance?

Imagine how different our world we be if we saw every person around us as an invitation to encounter Christ. Feeding them, giving them something to drink, welcoming them and visiting them. Asking God for greater awareness of grace so that we can make the qualities of “righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness” our own.

In this way we are able to do what Saint Paul challenges us to do. “Lay hold of eternal life.”

On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update. You can subscribe to our podcasts on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

About Author