Some
Thoughts on the Liturgy
OUR
PERSONAL MISSION STATEMENT
As
followers of Jesus Christ, we must be interested in what Jesus
wanted us to do most of all. It might be contained in the
first words that he speaks to his followers. In the Gospel
today, we hear those first words as told by the evangelist
Matthew. Matthew’s Gospel develops this way: the infancy
section, John the Baptist’s ministry, Jesus’ Baptism, the
temptations, the solemn introduction to the first words
quoting Isaiah—our first reading (Isaiah 8:23-9:3), quoted
again in the Gospel—and the first words to his followers,
what may be the most important words of Jesus to us:
Repent,
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
There
are two parts to that statement of Jesus. One is the necessity
to repent; the second is the whole idea of the kingdom of
heaven. Both are important for the spiritual life.
-
repent
– meaning that I must be sorry and that I will change some
things in my life that may not be so good;
-
the
Kingdom –
Jesus’ favorite image, which according to the Catechism
of the Catholic Church
is not only the final destination of Christians which we are
beginning right now—the end time. But it is the end result
of what will happen when we cooperate with the grace of the
Spirit to make everything holy in our society and culture. All
of this brings us to what our response should be: it involves
the whole idea of a personal mission statement.
One
of the classic psychology self-help books which I quote often
is Stephen Covey’s book “7 Habits of Highly Effective
People” written a number of years ago. He calls his second
habit “Begin
with the End in Mind,” and
suggests that we write our own personal mission statement as
we go about our lives. We do it by determining the principles
that guide our lives. To find out what they are, he says, we
need to envision our own funeral, saying: “Imagine that as
your casket is being lowered down into the ground, your family
and friends are standing around watching. What are they
thinking about? What do you want them to think about, imagine
and remember?” He says that it is precisely these
images and memories—what you want them to think about—that
are the principles that make up your mission statement.
Judging
from Jesus’ first words, Jesus would say that if you
professed to be a Christian in your life, the things that
people should say about you should include a couple of
principal ideas. First, he/she was a person who tried to do
something about the faults in his/her life. And second, he/she
tried to make the situation around him/her better than it was.
Those
of course are very general directives, and if we are to make
them personal, we have to bring them down to our situations
right now, whatever they may be. They will include our family,
our location, our circumstances, the culture in which we live,
our particular situations, the people that we deal with, the
people who make up our lives. Then, we both recognize our
possible sinfulness with those situations, and repent
of any sinfulness.
And then, recognize the need we have to make those situations
holy, that is, we must promote
the Kingdom.
I
think it involves actually writing down our goals, taking the
time to write down our personal mission statement, carrying
them with us, reading them from time to time, and revising
them as we need to. It means actually keeping them in front of
us in some way. A good teacher told me that years ago, and I
have done it ever since. We should write down the personal
goals that we have and carry them with us.
Returning
to that thought of Stephen Covey concerning what we want
people to say about us when our casket is being lowered into
the ground, may I suggest something. The next time you pass a
cemetery, ask a question about your goals in life. They should
include being sorry for the past, and trying to make the
present something holy, that is, repenting and promoting the
Kingdom.
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