It is so true that human beings stand at the apex of creation.
Human beings are indeed above all other creatures in terms of intelligence, rationality and creativity.
But over and above everything else, each human being has a free will.
A person's free will is the most powerful attribute that is bestowed by God.
Hence a person can choose to love or hate, to be kind or to be cruel, to be generous or to be selfish.
Whatever a person's choice, only that person can decide and no one can ever take away a person's free will and the choice he makes.
In the 1st reading, the people made a choice to ask for a king, and God respected their choice and even told Samuel to obey the voice and the choice of the people, despite having told them what their choice entails.
In the gospel, the paralytic and his friends were determined to get to Jesus, and though it was almost impossible to get in by the front door, their determination, and their choice, was to go by way of the roof.
And Jesus saw their faith and rewarded them for their faith by healing the paralytic.
We have the power of choice that is rooted in our free will.
May we exercise our free will with faith so that we will always do the will of God.