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Everybody is expected to keep promises. When our friends fail to fulfill them, we are disappointed. But come to think of it, are we really capable of fulfilling every promise we make? I guess not. You promise to bring your daughter to the movies, but the car won’t run or it rains. You promise you will cook for your husband, then there’s a brownout or you cannot find the ingredients for the dish. You promise you will be kind, then you see somebody who makes your blood pressure rise. When things like these pop-up, off goes your promise.
We are not really in full control of ourselves. That is why, humanly speaking, it is not possible to keep every promise we make. In the gospel, the Lord asked the apostles, “Do you really believe?” The apostles said, “Yes, Lord.” The Lord asked again, “Do you really believe?” They began to hesitate because they realized that believing and following the Lord are not within their control. This is why when we have to make public promises, we say, “So help me God.” That is why, when I made my own promises as a priest, I also said, “Yes, with the help of God.”
I think it is important to keep in mind that we are able to keep promises only through the strength and grace God gives us. We are not in full control of anything. We do not even know whether we will live tomorrow or not. And yet we are bold with our promises, when in fact, nothing is ever within our control.
Perhaps as Christians, as followers of the Lord, it is always good to keep a condition to every promise we make -I will do it with the grace of God. I will do it, so help me God. Perhaps the reason we fail in fulfilling our promises is perhaps we rely too much on ourselves.
WITH THE HELP OF GOD
Jn 21:17
Jesus In My Heart
