Day 18: Making a choice
Luke 23:13–19
Pilate called together the chief priests, the rulers, and the people, and said to them, “You brought this man to me as one that perverts the people, and behold, having examined him before you, I found no basis for a charge against this man concerning those things of which you accuse him. Neither has Herod, for I sent you to him, and see,
nothing worthy of death has been done by him. I will therefore chastise him and release him.”
Now he had to release one prisoner to them at the feast. But they all cried out together, saying, “Away with this man! Release to us Barabbas!”—one who was thrown into prison for a certain revolt in the city, and for murder.
Deuteronomy 30:19–20
I have set before you life and
death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore choose life, that you may live, you and your descendants, to love Yahweh your God, to obey his voice, and to cling to him; for he is your life.
Divine Providence 73.6
[6] Spiritual freedom comes from a love for eternal life. The only people who arrive at this love and its pleasure are people who think that evils are sins and therefore do not want to do them, and who at the same time
turn toward the Lord. The moment we do this, we are in spiritual freedom, because it is only from an inner or higher freedom that we can stop intending evils because they are sins and therefore not do them. This kind of freedom comes from an inner or higher love….
Reflection
The chief priests, rulers, and the people declared their choice about who to set free, and it wasn’t the Lord. In what way
might you think or act like these characters, preferring a selfish choice over a choice to uphold the Lord’s will?
