26th Sunday A 27 September 2026 Choosing good
It is understood that the angels had a choice as to whether they would remain angels under God’s authority, or break from God and become devils instead. They valued their freedom from authority that much. I will not serve, said Lucifer.
Humans also get to choose whether or not they will serve God. Either go with Him and be led to eternal life, or defy Him and live an eternity of loss.
We are different from the angels in that they had only one choice while we can have a lot more than one. We can change whether we are in the light or the darkness, back and forth.
When we sin in a major way we have broken contact with God. When we confess that sin and make amends, we are back to life.
It is how we finish that counts. The first reading (Ez 18) makes this clear. We can be good and turn evil, or evil and turn good.
We are different from the angels because our wills are weaker. They made once choice and that choice was binding for all eternity. We make a choice, say to give up some bad habit, and we can collapse the next day. As the man said: It is easy to give up smoking; I’ve e done it lots of times!
So we make progress by stages rather than all at once. Gradually we can become stronger.
Our Lady was one exception to human weakness. She was totally given to the will of God and in her case once was enough. She was locked into loyalty to God. Be it done unto me according to thy word. We ask her to help us in our weakness.
We hope to improve and consolidate and never look back at Egypt. I have got this far I am not going to abandon this.
We have seen enough of the goodness of God to stay on track.
It is possible to go wrong for a range of reasons.
Also the choice for evil can be gradual and not all at once. Bad habits not corrected, carelessness about obligations, chasing after false gods, such as pleasure.
We can cease to believe that change is possible.
We can talk of choice where there is still technically a chance to choose otherwise, but we will not waver if we lock in the right choice.
For those presently lost, God encourages them to take refuge in Him, come to the Sacred Heart, fount of mercy, and all Heaven is pleased.
So much of
our prayer and sacramental life is geared towards this invitation to
repentance.
God shows His willingness to forgive in His word, in sacraments, in the living out of the good life by saints.
God knows that we are weak and can fall away again. So He gives us ways of not falling too far, and a way of coming back into balance.
He warns us not to delay repentance as the time is uncertain; but also because we can become hardened against the good, as per the fallen angels.
So even with heaven in view we can still stay on the wrong side, as did the fallen angels.
We repent and then we stay on that right side with smaller and more frequent repetitions of that wrong choice.
We encourage each other meanwhile as all being in the same boat, and we depend on each other for example, for mutual prayer, practical help, and forgiveness, and whatever else we can do. We choose life and good whenever there is a choice.
