What are You Willing to Give Your Life For?

 What are you willing to give your life for?

Not, what are you willing to die for...

....but what do you really live for?

This semester I am doing a new book study through my parish Women's Group.  We are reading Matthew Kelly's "Rediscover Catholicism".  It is an incredibly deep...insightful...and thought-provoking read.

As I was reading ahead, I came across this excerpt from Chapter 11 (Who Will be Next?).  Kelly says,

"On September 11, 2001, we learned a lesson that history has taught us many times before:  The most powerful people in history are those who are willing to give everything.  The nineteen hijackers were willing to give everything to complete their mission."

 "In every age, on both sides of the fence of GOOD and EVIL (emphasis mine), the most powerful agents of change are those people willing to give all their time, effort, and energy without reserve to the cause they deem worthy of their lives.  We saw this in the hijackers and we saw this in Hitler.  But we also see it in Francis of Assisi and Mother Teresa, in mothers who selflessly raise their children, in fathers who work tirelessly each day to support their families, in the priests who serve in our parishes, and in countless other heroic men and women throughout history who have given their lives to the service of God, humanity, and the Gospel."

"The question I ask again is:  What are you willing to give your life for?"
Matthew Kelly, "Rediscover Catholicism", page 133.

As I don't believe in coincidences, it gives me goosebumps to read those excerpts today...on 9/11.

And in all this time, (11 years since that tragic day) I have never once thought about the hijackers as being agents of change.

Yet, through their evil actions, they have ultimately changed American behavior...

...from how we board airplanes...to creating emergency kits for our homes...to racial profiling.

But positive changes resulted from the terrorists actions as well.  According to a public opinion survey posted by the AARP, even ten years after 9/11 Americans feel that it made them appreciate their friends and family more, and that it increased their patriotism.

So what if we all lived such purpose-driven lives...what if we were all willing to give everything to complete our mission,

...only that mission was a call to holiness.  To love all of humanity.  To live the Gospel and imitate Jesus Christ.

What a different world we would live in.

What is your mission?

Parenthood...homeschooling...nursing or education?  Perhaps you are called to be an accountant...an engineer...a sanitation worker.

It doesn't matter what the call is...just that we listen for it...that we heed it...that when we respond, we live our very best lives for it...

"The modern Church desperately needs men and women who are willing to live for the faith.  What are you willing to live for?"  (Kelly, "Rediscover Catholicism", p. 132)