Life Without Regrets

"Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got til it's gone?" - Joni Mitchell

"At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because at the preaching of Jonah they repented, and there is something greater than Jonah here." - Lk. 11:32

Today's gospel serves as an awakening for us. It starts with Christ declaring, "This generation is an evil generation" when you start from the bottom you can only go up, right? No. You can accept your fate and just remain evil or you can pick yourself up and correct your course and then slowly but surely make your way up from the basement.

What we are called to do is to live life with no regrets. This does not mean we should say "Live like there is no tomorrow? Then parties and orgies galore!" What we are being called to do rather, is hear the call of God in ourselves and be resolved in strengthening our commitment to serving him. Jesus reminds us that even the sinners of Nineveh, whom Jonah thought were unfit to be redeemed, reformed from their wicked ways and were saved by the grace of God. Who are we then, followers of Christ, to deny this wonderful opportunity of forgiveness and redemption with him through the words of Jesus?

Jesus isn't bragging in today's gospel by saying he is "greater than Solomon" or "greater than Jonah." He is stating a fact! Solomon and Jonah were mortal men, who had their flaws, but the one is flawless is offering eternal redemption to us, the "evil generation" who have found themselves trapped in a dark basement but really yearn to be saved.

So let us live our lives with no regrets. When we die, let us take comfort in the fact that we accepted the call of God through his son Jesus and have been given the greatest gift of all, eternal life, so long as we continue to build the Kingdom of God.