Column: Whom Shall You Serve?

The first reading this weekend from the book of Joshua is a powerful one, and asks a question we are invited to consider for ourselves. Joshua gathers all of the Israelites and says to them "If it does not please you to serve the LORD, decide today whom you will serve, the gods your fathers served beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose country you are now dwelling. As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD." 

This same question is posed to us, and it's worthwhile to reconsider it frequently. If it does not please us to serve the Lord, Jesus Christ, whom will we serve instead? We are made for worship, and if we don't worship the One True God, we will turn this to other "gods" -- be it 
financial security, pleasures, possessions, entertainment, relationships, etc. These in themselves can be good things, but not when they become our ultimate goal. 

If Jesus is the God whom we worship, the rest of these things can find their proper place. But if we let these things eclipse Jesus for us, then we not only lose Jesus, but those very things we sought after as well. As God told St. Catherine of Siena, "You take care of my things, and I'll take care of your things."

Lord Jesus Christ, grant us the courage and confidence to say with Joshua "as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord."