To choose correctly, to be able to make decisions is a great quality of the human being and a challenge. I can’t avoid taking decisions. My freedom, my majority of age and also my Christian maturity are concretized in my capacity to choose and decide.
Claret invites us today to refine our goal and choice in life. Some are satisfied with not doing evil, which is in itself something. But following Jesus is more than choosing between evil and good. In the Christian life, you will be faced with the task of having to choose between two good things, especially when it has to do with choosing a vocation. How do I know the path the Lord is preparing for me? Where can I serve more and better?
Claret’s life was full of crossroads, which forced him to clarify his criteria in concrete options. What criteria would we use in order to choose correctly? Claret offers you some. Are they things of the past? Let us review them.
He chose the poorest option. The messenger travels without anything, with a few belongings, possessing only the authority of being chosen and sent and the Good News as a garment; it is his treasure. The poorest option does not distract, nor divert attention, nor entangle; rather it makes one agile for the proclamation.
Claret chose the most humiliating option. There would be few proponents here. Here one needs to be totally convinced and have a high level of freedom. Like Mary, Claret feels that God finds pleasure in lowliness. And Claret would examine his level of humility many years after.
Beside, he feels called to choose the most painful option: the cross, to give up his life, to die to himself. My discernment would be right if it led me to love more than I have loved until now, if it led me to sacrifice more, finally, to joyfully carry the cross.
Lord, grant that I may be your disciple; that I may be able to detach myself from the many things that entrap me in order to carry your cross and follow you.