Faith - a Total Commitment
Faith: A Total Commitment
The biblical concept of faith implies deep personal commitment. Nowhere in the Scriptures do we find people merely giving God an affirming nod. True faith always involves a total commitment of one’s self to God.
Seminary life is never easy. I have been through a lot of difficulties. But, there is one important virtue I learned from my stay in the seminary, the virtue of sacrifice. Seminary formation entails a lot of sacrifice. It demands ontological death – dying to one self. It is the paradox of the seminary life. We are intentionally becoming another while remaining the same physical individual. With this, I also learned the value of the word “commitment”.
Commitment simply implies sending of one’s self to other. The contemporary philosophers have coined such “sending of one’s self to other” as “indwelling”. You dwell in and with that person. Also, it may imply sending of one’s self ahead. It means that you are giving yourself to others not only today but also in the future.
…I got invested. A cassock is a garment of faith. It is a total commitment of one’s self to God. It manifests one’s selfless giving to others not just today but also tomorrow. It manifests one’s self-emptying and being replaced by another. The cassock is a gift rather than an achievement. It is more than a simple sign. It is in fact a sign of faith. It is the most precise symbol of my vocation – vocation to the priesthood.
A cassock is and will always be a constant reminder of my faith. Such commitment gave me a new mode of existence – to serve others as a good steward of God’s varied grace. As what St. Francis de Sales has put it, “Faith is prepared for hope, but it is only given to
The biblical concept of faith implies deep personal commitment. Nowhere in the Scriptures do we find people merely giving God an affirming nod. True faith always involves a total commitment of one’s self to God.
Seminary life is never easy. I have been through a lot of difficulties. But, there is one important virtue I learned from my stay in the seminary, the virtue of sacrifice. Seminary formation entails a lot of sacrifice. It demands ontological death – dying to one self. It is the paradox of the seminary life. We are intentionally becoming another while remaining the same physical individual. With this, I also learned the value of the word “commitment”.
Commitment simply implies sending of one’s self to other. The contemporary philosophers have coined such “sending of one’s self to other” as “indwelling”. You dwell in and with that person. Also, it may imply sending of one’s self ahead. It means that you are giving yourself to others not only today but also in the future.
…I got invested. A cassock is a garment of faith. It is a total commitment of one’s self to God. It manifests one’s selfless giving to others not just today but also tomorrow. It manifests one’s self-emptying and being replaced by another. The cassock is a gift rather than an achievement. It is more than a simple sign. It is in fact a sign of faith. It is the most precise symbol of my vocation – vocation to the priesthood.
A cassock is and will always be a constant reminder of my faith. Such commitment gave me a new mode of existence – to serve others as a good steward of God’s varied grace. As what St. Francis de Sales has put it, “Faith is prepared for hope, but it is only given to