THE POWER OF CHOICES

Homily for the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

Fr. Ugochukwu Ugwoke, ISch

Sirach 15:15-20; 1 Corinthians 2:6-10; Matthew 5:17-37

A teacher once told her students, “Your future is hiding inside your daily decisions.” Most of them laughed. They were waiting for something dramatic - a breakthrough, an opportunity, a miracle. But she was right. Our lives are rarely changed by one grand moment. They are shaped quietly, steadily, by choices.

The First Reading from Sirach places this truth before us with striking clarity: “If you choose, you can keep the commandments.” Scripture does not speak of obedience as impossibility but as decision. “Before man are life and death… whichever he chooses shall be given him.” This is not fatalism. It is freedom. God does not manipulate us into holiness. He dignifies us with the power to choose.

The Gospel reading even raises the stakes. In Matthew 5, Jesus deepens the law. “You have heard that it was said… but I say to you.” He moves from external compliance to interior conversion. It is not enough to avoid murder; anger itself must be confronted. Not enough to avoid adultery; lust must be purified. Why? Because choices begin long before actions become visible. Sin is conceived in the heart before it is born in behavior. Sirach tells us we can choose. Jesus reveals where that choice truly happens - in the interior life.

Many of us imagine that morality is about avoiding big scandals. But Christ is concerned with the daily, hidden decisions: the choice to entertain resentment, the choice to nourish impure thoughts, the choice to manipulate truth. These interior movements form us. As the Second Reading reminds us, true wisdom is not worldly cleverness but participation in the mind of Christ. It is a Spirit-given capacity to see beyond immediate gratification toward eternal consequence.

This is why Jesus’ teaching feels demanding. “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out.” The language is hyperbolic, but the point is serious: decisive action is required. The Christian life is not passive drift. It is intentional discipleship. But we must be careful. The power of choice does not mean self-salvation. Left to ourselves, our freedom weakens. We know the good and still struggle to choose it. Grace does not eliminate freedom; it heals and strengthens it. The commandments are not burdens imposed from outside. They are guardrails protecting the dignity of our freedom.

Think about it: every day you are making spiritual deposits. Each decision either expands your capacity for love or contracts it. Choosing forgiveness makes the next act of forgiveness easier. Choosing bitterness makes the heart harder. Freedom grows stronger when exercised in truth.

And this is where the Eucharist becomes essential. At Mass, we encounter not only a teaching, but the Teacher Himself. Christ gives us His very life so that our choices may be sustained by His grace. The “Amen” we say before Communion is itself a choice - a choice to align our lives with the One we receive. So today, the Word of God is not asking for abstract reflection. It is asking: What are you choosing? Not in theory - but in your speech, your relationships, your habits, your private thoughts.

Life and death are placed before us daily, often in small and quiet decisions. The power of choices is real. And by grace, we can choose life.