Preaching through Life

It is one thing to know and another thing to really feel it in our bones. Facts do not touch us, except when they come to give us the much needed jolt or shock. It is like everyone knows that smoking is injurious to health, but one does not care for the statutory warning by the government until the physician tells the person after a mild attack that if he does not give up smoking, he would have just a few more months to live. The person had known the facts, but it was only the shock that would refrain him from resorting to the next cigarette. So many things in life are based on this simple notion that we are not touched by facts, but wait for a jolt which would wake us out of the slumber.

It is so easy to talk about something, but when it comes to cross checking what we talk with what we do, it might make us ashamed. Today as I walked back home after the Mass at the Cloistered Carmel Convent, the regular couple I see often during the Mass were returning home. I slowed down my walk to say hello to them, and after the greetings, the lady asked me if the new practices of liturgical rubrics are in vogue or not, and I told her quite confidently that they were. Then she asked me, Why are the people not following them still, and I was trying to evade her question saying that the people have not been adequately informed about the changes.

In my enthusiasm, I told her that it is the duty of the pastors to educate the people and invite them to follow the new rubrics. She was sharp enough to ask me immediately, in that case, why didn’t you tell the people today, and I did not know what to say. I did not realize that she would put that embarrassing question to me. Then she pleaded, please inform them during the Mass! It came as an eye-opener for me to realize that quite often I do not realize what I preach to others, and needless to say, I do not care to practice much of what I preach, and it is a sad thing, and I hope to do something about this at least in the days to come.

There is a little hole in my authenticity, that is to say there is an incongruity between what I preach to others and what I practice in my person life. It is true that when I preach, I do it as a servant of God, while when I practice, I do it as an individual. There is a difference in the two roles I constantly play, however it is the same person. I am sure there would be more people who would be moved to practice not what I preach, but what I practice in my own life. The greatest scripture I can preach to others is my personal life, how God is acting in me and through me, and how I find him in others, in nature and in the universe. I can preach so well with my life, and not necessarily by my words.

Maybe it is time that I reduce my preaching in words and begin to preach through my life; I know it is not that easy to do, because I need to learn some of the basics all over again. I need to look at what I had been advocating to others, so that I myself my inculcate some of the values. For instance, I have been quite good in giving advice to those in trouble and difficulty, while I have not realized that I myself had been in such a situation many a times, and had not felt the need to seek help and assistance. I need to get down from the pulpit and stand in the midst of people who are struggling to make meaning out of my words, and I shall find some meaning in them for myself, so that they may inspire others too!