Deeds and not simply words

YES, we should not just be good in words. We have to

convert our words and intentions to concrete deeds. Otherwise, there

hardly would be any effect!

  

            In so many words, Christ said it. “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.” (Mt 7,21)

  

            St. Paul said something similar. “Not the hearers of the

law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.”

(Rom 2,13). And St. James: “Be doers of the word, and not hearers

only, deceiving your own selves.” (1,22)

   

            Christ himself lived by this principle, even at the

expense of his own life. “I do nothing of myself, but as the Father

has taught me...” (Jn 8,28) And in the agony in the garden, he

expressed that most eloquent submission to his Father’s will, “Not my

will but yours be done.” (Lk 22,42)

   

            All the saints lived by this principle. And the epitome is

Our Lady. When someone in the crowd told him his mother was around, he

said: “Behold my mother and my brethren. For whosoever shall do the

will of my Father that is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and

mother.” (Mt 12,29-30)

  

            Far from disparaging his own mother with those words,

Christ was actually praising her to high heavens. Mary did not only

beget her son biologically. She begot him through her deep and

constant faith, through her faithful obedience to God’s will. Her

‘Fiat’ (Be it done) was not only uttered at the Annunciation. She

lived it before and after that meeting with the Archangel Gabriel. In

fact, she lived it all throughout her life.

  

            We have to find ways and strategies to turn good

intentions and nice words into action. We cannot deny that we, in

general, are notorious in being good only in the former but bad in the

latter.

  

            For this, we first have to ask for the grace of God, which

requires us to be humble. That’s because without humility we will

always think that with our own effort and powers alone, we can achieve

this union between intention and words, on the one hand, and the

action, on the other. This will never happen. We need God’s grace

always.

  

            And even if that grace is given gratuitously and

abundantly at that, we need to ask for it just the same to inculcate

in our mind that things depend first on God before they depend on us.

Yes, things depend on God 100%, even as they also depend on us 100%.

But the proper priority should always be observed.

   

            Insofar as things depend on us, we obviously need to train

ourselves to be consistent with our intentions and words. So with

God’s grace, let us practice and cultivate the habit of being true to

our good intentions and nice words, until it becomes automatic or

instinctive to us to turn our intentions and words into concrete

deeds.

  

            Yes, we cannot deny that this ideal can be difficult and

that in its pursuit, we can suffer a lot of failures. But we should

just go on, getting up after every fall, no matter how many times we

fall. God’s grace has a way of repairing and healing things.

  

            Our aim should be that our words are good as done. Of

course, given our human condition, this may not happen all the time.

Just the same, we just have to continue aiming at that ideal. Let’s

take comfort at the thought that what is impossible to us is always

possible with God. That is why we need to ask continually for God’s

grace, so that our failures and frustrations can have their fulfilment

in God’s hand!