How do we relate to the opposition in our daily life? What do we read? Who do we listen to? We are to kill the enemy, that is, the temptation within, by our zeal to obey God's law and be purified, to cast out that which leads us away from the Lord (see 1 Mc 2:26). People "make a covenant with death" (Is 28:15) by daily choosing death in the little things. Mattathias recognized the time of his visitation and was ready to choose the Lord and make any lifestyle changes required. Like Mattathias, spring up and kill these temptations (see 1 Mc 2:24).

We cannot have two masters (Mt 6:24). We can't "straddle the issue" (1 Kgs 18:21) between the world and the Lord. "A man is marked out as God's enemy if he chooses to be the world's friend" (Jas 4:4; Phil 3:19).

It's the little things we let into our lives — the magazine articles, the YouTube videos, the TV shows — that make us recognize or miss the time of our visitation (see Lk 19:44). People often choose death in small ways day by day. If this trend is not changed, after a time we have grown so far from God that we easily miss His visitation to us. On the other hand, we can choose to seek the Lord daily. Daily Mass, daily prayer, and daily Bible reading builds us up one day at a time to a place of strong commitment to the Lord. The choice is set before you, life or death. Choose life (Dt 30:19).

Rescript:  †Most Reverend Joseph R. Binzer, Auxiliary Bishop, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, April 12, 2017

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