WORD 2day: Thursday, 12th week in Ordinary time
June 27, 2019: Genesis 16:1-12, 15-16; Matthew 7: 21-29
Let's talk of three categories of persons - Pretenders, Performers and Professionals!
Pretenders are those who try to be something that they really are not, but everyone can see it so obviously that they actually are pretending. These are amateur actors, but they can perfect themselves in the act.
The Performers are those who perform to the occasion, to the audience, to the moment. Though they are not actually what they act to be, their performance comes very close to reality.
The Professionals are those who live the character they want to be for the short moment to such a perfection that people begin to equate the character and the person!
We could be any of these three in our Spirituality - trying to pretend to be someone that people see so clearly that we are not; or performing at certain moments with perfection that comes with practice and repetition; or being professionals who can be taken so easily to be what they appear to be, though it may be solely for certain punctuated moments. None of the three is SUFFICIENT to be an authentic disciple of Christ... What he wants is an integrity where there is no pretension or performance or professional role playing.
Integrity that Christ demands, requires a ready acceptance of the crosses that come my way once I have chosen a definite way of walking with the Lord. Abraham is given as a model today, as one who struggled his way all through with contradictions, conflicts and difficult choices to make, but he remained faithful. The key is Integrity in the choice for God!