Although God chooses out of the world those on whom He sets His love and for whom He destines the rich gifts of grace and glory, yet He never forces their will. He draws them to Himself with the cords of love, but it is in their power to resist. All men choose deliberately at some period of their lives between the love of God and the love of self. Our homage to God must be a voluntary homage and our love must be a voluntary love. We must choose God in spite of the difficulties and objections that are raised by our lower nature. Have I made this choice? Moreover, do I make it in all the details of my life?
It seems logical that every sane man should choose Him who contains all perfections in an infinite degree rather than any of the miserable trifles that do not satisfy and will soon pass away.
Yet how few there are who make a full and complete choice of God! The Prophet complains (Jeremiah 2:13), "They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water, and have digged themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water." Do I not, alas, every day choose some passing indulgence, though I know I should please God more and earn His love if I denied it to myself?
Our Lord tells His Apostles, "You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you." Therefore, God has chosen us rather than us Him. He chose to give us grace and carried it through to the end before we made the choice to prevent it. It was more His than ours. This is true of all vocations, great or small, when we have through God's mercy chosen Him rather than yielded to natural inclination. O my God, choose me ever and grant that I may ever choose Thee!
- text from Charity, Meditations for a Month by Father Richard Frederick Clarke, SJ