Reflections of a beloved son

Guilt. Shame. Hopelessness. These are the things that can weigh us down and may even paralyze us.  In today's Gospel reading , Jesus tells a parable about a Pharisee and a tax collector who are in the temple.  The Pharisee begins to pray out loud thanking God that he is not like the other sinful people and not like the tax collector.  We are told that the tax collector kept his head down, "beat his breast and prayed, 'O God, be merciful to me a sinner .'"  Jesus told the crowd that the tax collector went home justified and not the Pharisee.    What's the point of Jesus' parable?  Sometimes we may feel entitled and we begin to allow our pride to take over, judging others and thinking we are better than them.  Even when we reflect we may sometimes say "I know I'm a sinner, but at least I did not kill anyone or did anything as bad as that guy."  That is no different than what the Pharisee said.  Though it may be true that what you did ...

We make many decisions on a daily basis - what to drink, what to eat, what clothes to wear, how to respond to questions and situations, etc.  So, there are those everyday decisions about certain instances of our lives, i.e. what to do at this moment, and there are those decisions that we must make that dictate how we live our lives.  We must choose a side. Do we choose to be on the side of good or on the side of evil?  Do we choose to stand with God or with the devil.  Do we choose to turn a blind eye or do we stand up for justice?  Do we choose sin or do we relish in love and communion?  Do we choose life or do we choose death?  We can not be in between on these matters.  As Christians we know we belong to God and to His love, but do we choose to do so? It is essential that we know what we choose because that will dictate how we will live our lives.  If we choose the side of good and life, then our actions will be directed towards that....