We have so many choices we can make.  When I go down the cereal aisle 

of the supermarket, I have to decide: should I get the Honey Nut Cheerios or the 

Total, or Wheaties, or Raisin Bran, or  Whatever. We Americans are used to being 

offered many choices.  The biggest grocery stores of Paris, London or Rome do not 

offer as many choices as the supermarkets in Palm Harbor and Tarpon Springs.

            We are used to making all sorts of choices in our lives,  from minor ones like 

picking a cereal to major decisions like choosing a career or a spouse.  This is part 

of being a human.  The  most important choices we make are those choices that only 

a human being can make. When we make human choices we  consider the results of 

the choice we make upon our lives and the lives of others.  We consider how we can 

be better people if we make a choice or refrain from making a choice.  We can love, 

for love itself is a choice.

            Animals really don't have the ability to choose like humans do.   Yes, your dog 

may not like Gravy Train but may like Alpo. But Fido is not considering how much 

money it cost you to buy a months supply of Gravy Train at Sam's Club and how that 

money is now going to be just thrown away.  Fido may wag his tail when he gets his 

Alpo, or may get all excited when you enter the house after stepping outside for a 

whole three minutes, but Fido's love is not based on his ability to choose.  His animal 

love is a spontaneous reaction to the person who gives him attention.

            Human beings, though, can choose.  Their lives must revolve around the 

results of their choices.  The most important choice a human being can ever make 

is the choice to love or not to love.  When you folks first met your spouses you may 

have felt a deep stirring inside of you that may have said, "This is the man or woman 

for me."  So you went on a date and then started "going together".  Then, somewhere 

before the engagement was official you realized that to spend the rest of your life with 

this man or this woman meant making many sacrifices.  You had to give up being with 

the girls or the guys so much.  You had to give up or modify your career plans.  You had 

to give up doing all the things you wanted to do for the sake of the things that he or she wanted to do.  When your choice of your spouse demanded choosing to make sacrifices 

for him or her, your relationship really became one of love.  Then you married and 

learned how much you really are called to sacrifice.  But you continued because you 

loved your choice, you loved loving him or her. 

            Then you had your children and sacrificed more than you ever sacrificed before 

in your lives, and loved more than you ever loved in your lives. And as time has gone on, 

you begin to realize more and more that the symbol of Christianity, the Cross, is a 

constant reminded of the sacrificial love that is at the heart of true love.  And as time 

goes on you realize more and more that the more you love the better person you have become.  In the midst of working extra hours and cleaning the bathroom and doing the laundry and taking the kids to soccer, you have become a better person and closer to 

the Lord, because you have chosen to love as He loves, sacrificial love.

            Because we can choose to love, we can also choose not to love.  The rich man 

in the Gospel reading for today chose not to love.  He did not want to sacrifice himself 

to the slightest degree for the poor man, Lazarus, who sat starving at his doorway.  His choice in life was to be selfish.  He took care of Number One and never learned how to love.  He had no capacity to receive the eternal sacrificial love of God.  He went to hell because he was incapable of receiving the joy of heaven.  We was incapable of loving.  When he cried to Abraham to send Lazarus to help his brothers, Abraham responded 

that the man's brothers already knew that they needed to learn how to love.  As 

members of the chosen people, they had Moses and the Prophets.  The rich man said, 

that they would pay better attention if someone were to rise from the dead. Abraham responded that even the Resurrection of Lazarus or anyone, including Jesus, would 

have no effect on those who have rejected the way of the Lord, the way of sacrificial 

love.  They were in the process of making a choice.  They knew what choices they 

needed to make and were ignoring the choice of love in favor of selfishness.  Now 

they would suffer the result of the choice for eternity.

            Next Sunday is Respect Life Sunday.  We are reminded of the choices we must 

make to keep God's love alive in the world.  The choice of love means the choice of a sacrifice.  The rose comes with thorns, but having the rose is worth bearing with the thorns.  We make the choice to respect the life and honor the life of the critically ill 

even if this means living with the real expectation of death in our own homes.  So many 

of you have nursed dying spouses, parents, relatives and friends.  Your choice of love demanded sacrifice, but the sacrifice was not as  significant as the love that motivated 

it and that grew from it.  We make the choice to respect and honor the life within the 

young mother.  This results in a financial burden, a change in lifestyle, and maybe a 

change in careers.  But the choice to love has the deeper result of bringing a new 

reflection of God's love into the world and forming the Mom and all involved into a 

more loving person.  We make the choice to honor and respect the lives of those whose lives  are challenged due to some form of limitation.  We've thrown out the word handicapped in favor of challenged because we have come to recognize that the 

person who can love and whose very life causes us to grow in love is certainly a gift 

from God.  They may be challenged because they can not see, hear, walk, or learn as 

others their age, but they are not handicapped in their ability to love and lead others to greater love. 

            The greatest gift that God ever gave us is the Gift of His Son.  This Tremendous Lover sacrificed his divinity, he emptied himself, he sacrificed his dignity, he was 

scorned and rejected by the people he came to save, and he sacrificed his life on 

the Cross.  He sacrificed everything but he never gave up loving us.  This Tremendous 

Lover gave us the example of sacrificial love.  He calls us today and everyday to follow 

him in sacrificial love.  For sacrificial love is the only love that is real, it is the only love 

that is human and it is the only love the makes the divine tangible.