December 5/First Thursday of Advent
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” ~ Matt 7.21
To many skeptics of Christianity, the gap between our profession of faith and our enactment of it in daily life – between words and actions – appears to be mighty wide. (Even people of faith acknowledge this, too, if we are honest.) There can be too much distance between the ideas of mercy, love, and peace that we espouse every week and the actions we take every day, which may be far from merciful, loving, or peaceful. It is not enough to chant the chants and pray the prayers; it is not sufficient to repeat the creed and sing the hymns. Faith is not just a matter of believing, or even speaking, but of doing. As the fourteenth-century saint Catherine of Siena wrote in her Dialogue, voicing God, “I am one who is pleased by few words and many works. . . I am not much pleased with one who simply shouts, ‘Lord, Lord, I would like to do something for you!’” Indeed, there is much to bemoan in this darkling world – but standing on the sidelines and criticizing rarely makes anything better. If we do not allow ourselves to be animated by our relationship with Christ and carry the spirit of his love into the world in concrete ways, we are missing the point. God wants more from us than good intentions. God wants good actions. There is always something we can do in our families, our neighborhoods, our cities, to advance the reign of God. Saying and praying the right things is a start, but we must also do the right thing, which means discerning God’s will for our lives, and then bringing it to fruition, in ways large and small, every day.
Lord, May my actions in the world mirror the words with which I profess my faith, every day. Amen.
For today’s readings, click here: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/120524.cfm
To hear Cantus Choro sing “Forth In Thy Name, O Lord, I Go,” music by Orlando Gibbons, text by Charles Wesley, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUVAbXgJyqQ&list=RDAUVAbXgJyqQ&start_radio=1
