The Promise

A few weeks ago, I heard a priest talking about a promise during his homily. The readings and the Gospel for that Sunday were about marriage, so the promise referred to was the one made by a man and a woman during their vows or the one a priest makes at his ordination. The priest giving the homily stated that once you make a promise like this, you never have to answer certain questions again. For example–“do you like being married?” or “how do you like being a priest?” These questions do not matter any more. Although it is important to marry someone you love or to enter the priesthood because you are called to it, once you have made your promise, you are sworn to it. If you ever break that promise, you lose your humanity.

In the movie “A Man for all Seasons,” St. Thomas More tells his daughter, “When a man takes an oath, he’s holding his own self in his own hands like water, and if he opens his fingers then, he needn’t hope to find himself again.”

I may not be married or considering entering a convent, but I am making a promise. God has been drawing me toward this vow for awhile. He has shown me that this world has fallen, and now resembles the time Jesus experienced while He was on earth. The world needs people like His first disciples to go wherever the Lord asks them to go. Our modern world is forgetting who Jesus is or even denying Him completely. As a result, our society is governed increasingly by fear. Without God as our Lord and Savior, there is nothing else left. This is a time when we need martyrs, saints, disciples, apostles and prophets.

“The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.” Matthew 9:37

This is what I am promising the Lord. I will go, do and speak wherever and whatever He tells me. I have said this before, but I am renewing my vow. My life is no longer my own, it is and always has been His. He is asking me to surrender to Him and do His will because the world He created is now in the hands of Satan, the Prince of Lies, and all His children’s souls are in jeopardy.

____

Originally published at Kitty in the City

Photo: Ben White, Unsplash / PD-US