What you do or Who you are - which matters?

THE WORD IN LENT: Friday after Ash Wednesday

February 28, 2020" Isaiah 58: 1-9; Matthew 9: 14-15
Point for Dialogue #2: A Show or the Spirit

What you do matters, of course. But why you do it and how you do it matters more. The reason for choosing to do something, and the way that something is done, depends so much on the person that you are! Yes, what you do receives its true value from who you are as a person and it is not, or at least it should not be, the other way about! 

The prayers said, the rites performed, the sacrifices undertaken, the vows made and fulfilled, the practices kept up - all these will have their value, depending on the quality of daily life, types of ordinary choices and the respectful interpersonal relationships that one has in life. 

What a scandal it is to have a wide gaping space between one's beliefs and one's practices, between one's religious practice and one's personal relationships, between one's religious convictions and moral values. And that is precisely why there should be a profound dialogue between what I do and what I am, between a mere show and the real spirit! 

The readings today invite us to turn to integrity - to speak what we believe and to live what we speak; to stand up for what we believe and to live personally what we stand up for. Integrity gives one the authority that comes from Truth, in a way, it comes from God! 

Let us remember today, that real godly persons are those who live a life of integrity. A life of integrity is where my actions come from what I believe and my belief is conspicuously beheld in my daily life, in my words and in every one of my actions.