Like so many people I know, I have grown distant from the church. In fact, one of the perks of being an adult is choosing not to attend mass at the ungodly hour of 8 in the morning on Sundays. But beyond the pain of getting up early and sitting through a long service on the weekends, there are too many rules imposed by the church which I find obsolete or just do not agree with. During those rare times I do attend church, to accompany my father or for a special occasion, I am still invaded by that sense of peace and community which can only be found within the house of God. Regardless of whether I am a practicing catholic or not, my two girls attend catholic school and I am a fervent believer of Jesus Christ.
Last night I attended a mass in honor of my brother-in-law’s defunct father. For the first time in years I heard a sermon which resonated in my mind and even motivated me to start going to church once again. The father spoke about an aspect of Christ which differentiated him from normal people, the fact that his words were one with his acts. Unity between word and action. Although this seems easy enough in theory, it is very hard to accomplish in practice because we are constantly making promises we can’t keep to our children, partners, friends and colleagues. This simple phrase made me think back to all the times I told my children I would take them to a park or buy them a gift for good behavior, the times I promised my mother I would call her with more frequency, or told my friends that we would meet for a coffee and conversations. Simple promises that I’ve never kept, that illustrate how contradictory my words are to my actions.
To me, the most interesting aspect of Jesus Christ has always been that he was human, and that with so many limitations he was able to accomplish the impossible. Even as a human being, Christ made good on all his promises… from healing the sick, to reproducing food and wine, to resurrecting the dead. People trusted him, counted on him because his word and actions were one and the same. The priest called upon us to work towards unity of word and action, to do our best to make good on our promises. This simple change in our lives touches everything, our family, friends and work. It changes all the relationships for the better because people know they can count on us to deliver what we promise.
Nice thought. We must obviously work on promises we make to ourselves first and then try to make true promises made to others. But in general, we promise things to friends and family to make them understand it's a "maybe later" achievement. We need to be less judgmental about our promises and simply accept we make mistakes constantly.
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