Dear People of God,

I have been doing a lot of thinking about desire and commitment.

In the world today, we see many people who have a true desire to do good and to give themselves to causes they believe in and people they love. We find ourselves agreeing that there are things that must be done and thinking about how we “really do want to help.” Yes, we are a people who desire many good and blessed things. The difficulty is when it is time to commit.

As long as I can express my honest desire to pray but am not asked to commit to it, I am fine. As long as I can express my desire to forgive but am not asked to commit to forgiving an enemy, I am fine. As long as I can express my desire to participate in some ministry but am not required to show up, I am fine. There seems to be this common idea in our society:- “I want to, but...”

There are moments when we think that wanting to do something is as good as actually doing it. That is truly fooling ourselves.

God does want us to desire to do the right things: go to Church, pray daily, give our time, talent and treasure for the mission and ministries of the Church, forgive, love the enemy, study the faith and many other good and holy things. However, God wants that desire to move us to commit as the General Thanksgiving states, “not only with our lips, but with our lives.”

As Christians, we must not be content with feeling good that we are well intentioned. We must care enough to do what we know is right.

It is easy to simply rest in our desire to go to Church, give our tithe, help with the ministries of the Church, write that letter, visit that friend, apologize for a wrong. We should not let feeling the desire for something be confused with a commitment to do it.

Christ asks us to work for the kingdom, not just desire it. Christ asks us to feed the hungry, not just desire to help. Christ asks us to give all of who we are and what we have to God’s will,- not just want to. For God, “I really do want to, but...” is not good enough. We must commit with action.

Peace, Father Gerry †