The Eternal Choice 

   “Choose, my soul, to which of the two you will go.  If you desire heaven, then you must walk in the way which leads to heaven.  If you should walk in the way that leads to hell, you will one day unhappily find yourself there.” (St. Alphonsus Liguori) 

   We are a people who have free will which means we can make our own choices in life.  We can choose what is wise and good or we can choose what is evil.  We take great pride in making choices even though we often don’t consider the lasting effects of those choices.

   Some believe any choice is valid so long as it harms no one, but every action we take has some effect on others as well as ourself.  Whether that effect is harmful or not we have no way of knowing.  But we tell ourselves, it’s still our choice and no one has the right to interfere.  Everyone else should just mind their own business.

   Of all the choices we make in life the one that seems to get most often overlooked is the choice of where we will spend eternity.  When this life is over that is really the only choice that matters.  None of the other choices we’ve made in life matters once we leave this world.

   We probably make millions of choices during our life, but only the choice of our eternal destiny goes with us when we die.  If we have walked the path that leads to heaven that will be our destiny.  If we have walked the path of sin and evil, we will spend eternity regretting that we made the wrong choice, with no way to correct it.