I just love the Easter Season and am glad it’s 10 days longer than the Season of Lent.

The stories of the early Church inspire me.

A couple of nights ago I flipped on the TV as I was folding and putting clothes away. This movie was on, and the scene was a man in an office meeting with the owner of the company he worked for.

The owner asked the man if he would consider a promotion to becoming a manager. The owner said if he did take the promotion, there would be one thing he needed the man to do. The owner needed the man to “fudge” the numbers a bit of production to make his company look good.

The man clarified, “Sir, are you asking me to lie about the numbers we are producing?”

The owner said yes and that it wasn’t really a terrible lie, just bumping the productions numbers up a bit for the good of the company.

The man asked if he could think about it and let the owner know the next day.

That night at home the man talked with his wife about what the owner offered and what he asked him to do.

He told his wife what the owner was asking him to do was to lie.

His wife said, almost crying, that they needed the raise he would get with the promotion so much.

They both looked sad.

The man had committed himself to God and living as a disciple of Jesus.  

The next morning the man went to the owner’s office, sat down, and…

It may not be a situation like this one, but every day we have choices to make.

Will we choose to do or say things that we know Jesus wants us to do or say as one of His disciples?

Will we treat our family members with kindness?

Will we be helpful when opportunities to do so arise?

Are we a committed disciple of Jesus, living as He wants us to?

After Jesus rose from the dead and the Apostles worked to build the Church, this was a very real, important question.

In this coming Sunday’s First Reading at Mass, Peter and the Apostles, with great courage, state they must live as God wants them to live, not as people want.

But Peter and the apostles said in reply, "We must obey God rather than people.” Acts 5:29

That scene of the man meeting with the owner of the company he worked for, well, he was asked what he decided.

The man told the owner that he appreciated very much the offer of a promotion to manager, but that he could not accept because he could not lie about the production numbers.

He said he was committed to God and living as a disciple of Jesus.

What do you think the owner said?

He stood up and shook the man’s hand, smiling saying that this was a test of his integrity. Not only will he become a manager, but the raise would be even more.

Again, this isn’t necessarily something we will face, but I think that when we do make choices throughout our day to live as a disciple of Jesus, the blessings flow.

Easter blessings!