Forks in the Road

By Fr. Jerry Pokorsky ( bio - articles - email ) | Jun 09, 2025

Among the many Yogi-isms of the baseball great Yogi Berra is: “If there is a fork in the road, take it.” Good advice. Every fork gives us a choice between the way of life and the way of death. The way of life is life in the Spirit. The way of death is the arrogance of self-reliance.

The Tower of Babel account is a story of self-reliance. Humans, united by a single language, sought to build a city and a tower with its top in the heavens to make a name for themselves. They failed. In response to their pride and ambition, God confused their language and scattered them across the earth. Human pride and self-reliance apart from God lead to division and disorder. However, the Holy Spirit redirects us on the way of life.

During the account of creation, the Spirit of God hovers over the waters. Job acknowledges he is the handiwork of the Spirit. The Spirit guides leaders of Israel and anoints the prophets. Isaiah prophesied the outpouring of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit.

The Angel Gabriel explains that Mary will conceive by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit leads Jesus into the desert at the beginning of His sacred ministry. The Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus like a dove during His baptism. The disciples must allow the Spirit to speak through them during persecution. Jesus casts out demons by the power of the Spirit. Jesus warns that blasphemies against the Holy Spirit are unforgivable. Jesus rejoices in the Spirit. After the Resurrection, Jesus institutes the Sacrament of Penance, saying: “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

The Holy Spirit descends upon Mary and the Apostles on Pentecost, restoring our unity as members of the Mystical Body of Christ. In our encounter with the Sacraments, we become members of His Church and instruments of His will. The birthday of the Church fulfills one of the loveliest phrases in Revelation: “Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth.” (Psalm 104)

The graces of the Holy Spirit are personal, and He applies the pleasing dew of His grace to our souls. God’s actual grace directs us, shows us the way of life, and makes life uncomfortable until we choose God’s way. Sanctifying grace is the justifying light of Christ burning bright within our souls. Everyone needs the light of sanctifying grace to enter heaven. But we may lose sanctifying grace with the commission of a single mortal sin.

The continuing encounter with Jesus in the Sacrament of Penance gives us the certainty of sanctifying grace. The sacraments are God’s gifts to those who respond with open hearts. But the Holy Spirit also works outside the sacraments as He sees fit. We judge human behavior against the objective criteria of God’s law, not the unseen state of souls. “Judge not, and you will not be judged.” (Lk. 6:37)

The Holy Spirit heals rebellious hearts and returns us to the way of life. The Spirit inspires parents to bring their children to the baptismal font or brings non-Catholics to the sanctuary of the Church. The Holy Spirit uses parents, priests, and others as prophetic voices. The Holy Spirit directs us to Confession.

The Holy Spirit causes discomfort, often a sense of shallowness, worthlessness, and discouragement, when we languish in the way of death. The Holy Spirit consoles us when the Devil discourages us from the life of grace.

The Holy Spirit honors our freedom. A pious image of a scene from the Book of Revelation depicts Jesus knocking at the door. The Catholic version does not have a doorknob. Jesus is a gentleman; He does not force Himself into our household. We must open the door from the inside. The Holy Spirit may disrupt our complacency in sin, but He does not violate our freedom. We freely submit to God and His way of life. We freely proclaim the Gospel. We avoid every manipulative method of evangelization.

But respect for freedom does not encroach upon parental responsibility. Obdurate teenagers are legion, hence this suggestion: "I will not force you to pray, but as long as you live in this house and eat our food, you must attend Mass. Sit still for an hour in Mass, or you’re grounded. And stand for the Gospel and Creed."

We rejoice in the consolation of the Holy Spirit, but know the love of consolation can displace the love of God’s will. After her death, we learned that Mother Teresa rarely felt God’s consolation. But her spiritual dryness, with God’s grace, impelled her heroic missionary zeal.

As children, we ask for the guidance of the Holy Spirit in our day-to-day play and studies. We invoke the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit as we make decisions, big or small. It often takes decades before we realize we have taken the wrong fork in the road. Did we respond to God’s grace or overreach it?

Marlon Brando’s melancholic remarks in the backseat of the cab in the movie classic On the Waterfront may cause anxiety in our heart of hearts: “You don't understand. I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody... instead of a bum, which is what I am, let's face it.”

Or perhaps with the arrogance of the Tower of Babel, we have overreached our God-given abilities. The truth set forth in the amusing book The Peter Principle in the 1970s may sting: With the flim-flam of self-reliance, we may have risen to our level of incompetence.

The solution is timeless. We cannot change the past. If there is another fork in the road, take it. Surrender to God’s providence, invoke the Holy Spirit, stop complaining, and show up for our duties.

Pentecost restores us to the way of life. "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (Jn. 15:5)