What would you die for?

I've had this nagging question that has disrupted my prayer and gripped my heart: "What would you die for?"  


Now let's face it.  It's not one of those questions you can hear and just avoid.  I mean, I guess you could, but when a question of such magnitude enters your life, it deserves an answer.  It requires a response.


So in my prayer this question has been a preoccupation.  What would I die for?  Like most questions that pop up I try to reflect upon those individuals in my life that would be healthy and profound examples on which to draw for an answer.


Whoever one looks to they obviously have this which they would die for as their highest priority and everything in their life must be directed by that reality.


I suppose with this being Memorial Day weekend I could draw on the heroic strength of the numerous men and women who have died for their country.  After all this is pretty magnificent when you think of it.  Individuals who literally put themselves in harms way to protect the values of the country and the innocent people of that country.  Awesome!


Inevitably I have to turn to THE MASTER.  When I asked the question, "What would Jesus die for," I was truly awe-struck to realize He thought of me and you.  I am and you are Jesus' highest priority.  We are the ones for which He died.  OH MY!  This is a game changer.


Is my priesthood, my Church, my Jesus worth dying for?  I look over my life and realize I have never been more complete, never more joyfilled, never more fulfilled than I am at this very moment in my life.  What more could one ask for than to celebrate the mystery of faith?  What more could one ask for than to hold the Savior in your hands and make Him present to the whole community of faith?  What more could one ask for than to be there in the moments of joy and sorrow and reconciliation in the lives of every child, teenage, man and woman and senior citizen in their sacred moments of life.  Could one be more blest than to hold the hand of the expectant mother giving birth or the dying man embraced in death by a God who loves him?


These are the treasures of my life.  These are the things worth dying for in my life.  And once that is the answer to the question, everything changes.  The values, the priorities, the relationships, the passions, even the weaknesses all change for the glory of God and the priority we hold as that for which we would die.


I feel so blest in this moment to know that the Savior of the World, believed that I was worth dying for and gave His life that I might have life to the full.  I pray God will give me the grace to return the favor in the years ahead.