Be a doer

Random, I know, but I was looking ahead (as there is only one more day in February) in my Magnificat this afternoon, and I came across the following reading for Monday's morning prayer -->

"Be doers of the Word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his own face in the mirror. He sees himself, then goes and promptly forgets what he looked like. But the one who peers into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres, and is not a hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, such a one shall be blessed in what he does." (James 1:22-25)

Now, I'm not sure how the psalms and readings for daily morning prayer are chosen in the Magnificat, but this one definitely speaks to the whole "faith versus good works" argument. I'm not much one for quoting scripture, but I do recall somewhere that it states, "Faith without good works is dead." Yes, clearly, we need both.

Especially as we prepare our minds and hearts to celebrate Lent - wow, is it really just over a week away? -, now is the time to consider how we are called in our daily lives to be doers of the Word, taking what we hear at Mass and in other reflections and putting it into practice. As I told my students, you can memorize the Beatitudes and Commandments all you want to, but unless you know what it means to live it out in your life, then those memorized words do not matter in the least. 

Yes, we must first hear it to believe it. But let it not stop there. Let us truly embody what we hear and go forth to live our lives as doers of the word.