Be Doers of the Word

Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves.

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, 

he is like a man who looks at his own face in a mirror.

He sees himself, then goes off and promptly forgets

what he looked like. James 1:22-24

Today, I wish to offer my prayers for the people of the Ukraine as they struggle to have their voices heard.  I also offer my prayers that there may be peace and dialogue in that country and many others around the world.  I pray for the people in Africa who struggle with war and fight to simply survive.  I pray for Christians in the Middle East and in Africa and around the world who have come to know what real struggle is and embrace the comfort of the Gospel.  May God grant them treasure and everlasting life in their witness.  I pray for the people in Israel and in Palestine; may they come to know the love of God and love for each other.  Much more locally, I pray for my soldiers and for the people who find their paths, virtually and physically, with mine.  May their footsteps be filled with the grace of God.  

The readings for this day speak to us all.  This is a continuation of the introduction of the letter of St James.  The Apostle asks us to take the Gospel and live it out in our lives.  The readings call us to witness to the faith.  If I am to call myself Catholic, then I must live in a manner which unequivocally expresses this reality.  The Gospel gives a demonstration of love where Jesus restores a man’s sight.  While we may not be able to spit and give sight to the blind as easily as Jesus, we can still be miracles in the world.  Our world is filled with blogs and web pages and social media, which are not necessarily bad things, but if we do not remember that we deal with people at every end, we can seriously distort each other’s dignity and undermine what we are called to do:  Love.  Love requires that we care for each other in such a way that we communicate tangibly with each other.  

One of my little interests is to read comments at the end of news articles.  It is astonishing to me how callous we can be when we share words with a computer monitor that we would never consider expressing in the public square.  I have noticed that most people tend to avoid confrontation as much as possible.  Disagreement of ideas is also not a bad thing as such disagreements often can create productive dialogue and allow people to compromise and exchange ideas.  Creative differences treated with humility allow us to remember that people are people and have dignity and are entitled to respect.  

One of the many salacious news topics is marriage.  While I am fully supportive of the Church’s definition of marriage and believe that we cannot legislate morality, we also should not legislate things which compromise the moral fiber of the Church.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that homosexual tendencies are objectively disordered in the human psyche and this definition is in complete accord with how I accept the Church.  What is often lost in this teaching is that our brothers and sisters who struggle with these issues are people who are to be respected and their dignity affirmed.  Some of our well-intentioned defenders of the faith sometimes even paint with a wide brush that ‘marriage equality’ proponents are seeking to destroy the institution of marriage may also be missing a humanistic piece of the puzzle.  Let me share a short anecdote.  My soldiers often complain about the decisions (or lack thereof) of our higher headquarters.  I often have to remind them that the leaders and support staff are not sitting around a table discussing ways to make our lives miserable.  They are merely doing the best they can with the perception and resources they have available.  The same goes in our dialogue with marriage.  We can faithfully defend the Sacrament without compromising the dignity of those who disagree with that definition.  We have to defend our Church and defend our beliefs.  Our course of action should include open and honest discussions where we can find a viable solution which does not compromise the integrity of the Church and also respects the free will of people.  The Church and the government need the voices of the people to come together and collaborate on a resolution which allows the Church to continue to serve the people as she has for centuries.  The people should also find peace and support for the decisions of civil leaders and through the mercy and grace of God, may those decisions not impair the Church.  

This time is a time where the faithful people must become doers of the word and not just hearers.  The modern day saints may not necessarily be found in the monasteries or seated upon a Cathedra but rather they will be found working in a factory or raising children who believe.  Saints find holiness in the ordinary and thus live extraordinary.  One of the things I easily forget is that in my own Confirmation, I was sealed with the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  These are the gifts of wisdom, knowledge, understanding, fortitude, piety, counsel and fear of the Lord.  God has already blessed me with the gifts to be a doer of the word.  It is as simple as accepting the gifts and using them to glorify the Lord.  And this has to be predicated upon our faith.  We must pray first and foremost for the will of the Lord and for his guidance.  And we must continue to pray, pray until we are tired and then pray some more.  And through it all, we must overflow with love for people.  If we cannot love one another, then we risk deceiving ourselves and forget who we are.  I believe that it is absolutely essential that we know who Jesus is.  When we know Jesus, then we can know who we are.  We are the children of God.  We are called to live.  We are called to holiness.  We are called to love.