Understanding is Not Doing
"Amen, amen, I say to you, no slave is greater than his master nor any messenger greater than the one who sent him If you understand this, blessed are you if you do it" (Jn. 13:16-17).
What is the "it" that Jesus is referring to? Something very important happened in the preceding verses. Jesus washed the disciples' feet. He gave them a model of loving service. Jesus wants us to know that it is not enough just to understand and know intellectually the model of loving service.
We actually need to live it out. We can't just know what we ought to do. We must do it. Perhaps we all know what the "right" thing to do is. But do we do it? If not, why not? Let us reflect on that and bring it to prayer. Father, I know and feel that I should do ....., but why am I not motivated to do it? Let Him speak to you.
What is the "it" that Jesus is referring to? Something very important happened in the preceding verses. Jesus washed the disciples' feet. He gave them a model of loving service. Jesus wants us to know that it is not enough just to understand and know intellectually the model of loving service.
We actually need to live it out. We can't just know what we ought to do. We must do it. Perhaps we all know what the "right" thing to do is. But do we do it? If not, why not? Let us reflect on that and bring it to prayer. Father, I know and feel that I should do ....., but why am I not motivated to do it? Let Him speak to you.
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ReplyDeleteAll the while we go to bible study, we want to know and to understand the Bible teachings. All the talk but no gain, we speak of the highest level of terms. But after all the time spent, we are just the same as ever. We do as we do, and we don't do as we don't. We in our translated missalette in the section of "Penitential Act", we recite: "承認我在思、言、行爲上的過失". This is not exactly the same as "in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and in what I have failed to do". Is this merely a difference in the language, or is it a matter of the cultural adaptation of the religion? We care more about what (the sinfulness) we have wrongfully done, but not what (the good deeds) we have failed to do. Is the latter actually required? We might just peacefully sit tight to avoid anything wrongfully done, to avoid sin, and then we may be clean enough to be accepted by God. Perhaps it is not about understanding, it is not about we don't know. Perhaps it is not about being lazy, or afraid of making mistakes. Perhaps it is not even about culture because culture has great teachings about good deeds in more than superfluous ways. It is in the words of a physicist: inertia; or momentum. In other words, it is the way we do things. We just keep on doing what we do except when there is an external force which can purposefully and with enough energy change our course in life. And what do you think it is?
ReplyDeleteThe part of the Confiteor in the Latin, "quia peccavi nimis cogitatione, verbo, opere et omissione," is translated as "that I have greatly sinned, in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and in what I have failed to do." And the Chinese, "承認我在思、言、行爲上的過失" translates roughly into "I admit the wrongs/omissions I have committed through my thoughts, words, and actions." All that we think, say, and do should reflect the glory of God, which is man fully alive, living as God created us to be - in His image and likeness. In other words, if all that we think, say, and do does not come out of love then we are not doing it right. Love is at the core. That's my take on it.
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