Deuteronomy 30:15-20 / Luke 9:22-25
We may know about the novel titled "Frankenstein" and may even have read it.
It is about this monster that Dr. Frankenstein created, although the monster had been mistakenly called Frankenstein.
It is not so much a horror story but rather a tragic story.
Because this creature-monster also had feelings and self-awareness to some extent.
It was that ability to think and feel and reflect that made it more an object of pity rather than of fear and disgust.
We too, can think and feel and reflect. And we also can choose.
That is what makes us uniquely human - our ability to choose; our freedom of choice.
In the 1st reading, Moses asked his people to exercise properly this freedom of choice - a choice for life or death, a choice for God or for sin and destruction.
In the gospel, Jesus stated clearly His choice - He chose the cross.
In turn, Jesus now asks each of us: What is your choice?
Do we want to follow Jesus and hence choose the cross?
That is the fundamental question that stands between us and Jesus.
Moses urged his people: choose life.
Ironically, it is in choosing the cross that we choose life.
To choose otherwise will only make us monsters.