Did you know what makes us different than most animals? We can say no to things. We can say no to things that we like to do and keep everything is moderation and be disciplined. We can choose to follow our desires or not. To give into what we want to do or not. We have the freedom to choose whatever we want. Most animals just follow their instincts, whereas we can choose to follow or not. At times this can be difficult to choose not to follow our instincts, but we all have the choice to do so, and we can do it.
I think it is easy for us Christians to think that I cannot change, or stop or reduce our sins, or not follow what I want to do, or to follow God. These things are hard to do, but we can do it. I am sure most of us have reduced our sins or not given into our instincts. We have done it before, and that means we can do it again. Do not lose hope that you will never be able to do it, because that is when we just give up and stop fighting, and that is the worst thing that you can do.
Brothers and sisters, we need to start practicing by being more disciplined in our lives because that is how we prepare for the day we die. Jesus reminds us of this in the readings today. It is easy for us to build things up for this world, but do we do the same for the world to come? We need to be prepared for the day we die, and we do this by not giving into all our desires and instincts because we can be better than animals. They have no choice, but we do.
What is something that you can do in your life to practice being disciplined and not giving into your instincts? In everything, practice makes perfect; the more we practice Godly things, the easier it is to reject what is not of God. The more we are in prayer and asking God for help, the more likely we can say no to gossip, or lying, or bad words. We can all do it, but we will have to practice.
Why do you think a lot of the saints have practiced being disciplined and not giving into everything they want? They chose not to have possessions, not live in comfort because they knew that would not help them. They chose to live a life in God over having things and getting everything that they want. They chose God over the world.
Do we do this with our lives? Do we choose God over the world? I pray that everyone would say that, but we all looked at our lives and see where we have chosen the world over God and I am sure we do this a few times. What is important in all of this is that we try to choose God over the world and practice doing that.
This is not easy and every time that we have decided to do this, we probably have failed, but do not lose hope or give up. We all have not given into temptation more than once and we can do it again. We just must find what works for us. And of course, God is there to help us to get there. So, let us all keep on practicing being disciplined to get to heaven.
Given on Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C