By Antony Cony D'Souza
Mangaluru, Nov 11: Why do you not practice what you preach?
What law or practice you are talking about? Is it traffic, civil, criminal or religious?
In traffic law, if violated, will not the traffic police take action?
In civil law, the individual who is affected will sue the other person.
In criminal law, the government will file a case.
When the church laws are broken, the church teaches that penal sanctions should have a three-fold aim - repair the scandal, restore justice and reform the offender. (I am not referring to the recent incidents occurred at the Shirva Church, but it is interesting to read till the end).
But what happens when someone advocates caning for adultery, himself commits the same sin? Will we not call him a hypocrite?
Last week, an Indonesian man was publicly flogged for adultery, under a draconian law which he himself helped to form it. A member of the same council received 28 lashes in front of a crowd after being caught having an affair with a married woman. His agency used to advise the local government on drafting and implementing ethical and moral codes taught by religious their tradition.
After the public flogging, one of the onlookers, who witnessed the punishment, said, "No matter who one is. If the law is violated, in the same measure, he or she should be whipped.”
In our daily life, some may break the law to some extent, for example, a lawyer may break the law, driver may disobey the traffic signals, parents may not practice what they instruct their children or a clergy may not follow his own preaching. Many parents instruct their children to watch an hour of television everyday but hardly children remember whether their parents have ever practiced it. Therefore, one should behave in the same manner as she or he would expect others to behave.
‘Do as you would have others do’. The idea is an ancient one, expressed in somewhat different form in the Bible (Matthew 23:3). ‘They say and do not’; ‘They preach but do not practice’. This is not something new but repeated over the centuries. It appeared in Dickens’s Old Curiosity Shop (1840) ‘Divines do not always practice what they preach’.
Why is it easier to preach than to practice?
Recently, I came across a story which I would like to share here. There was a certain elderly person living in a village. People of all nearby villages used to come to him seeking solutions for their various issues. One day, a couple with their young child, came to him and asked for his help. The couple said, “Please give us a solution as we parents are tired of teaching our child not to eat sweets but he is so reluctant and never obeys us. We are very much hopeful that if you say once to him, he will definitely obey you and stop eating sweets.” All the villagers and devotees sitting there said, “Oh! It is the easiest problem we have heard ever. They presumed the answer from the elder would be quick. But to their surprise, the elderly person asked the couple to come after two weeks for the solution to their problem.
This news spread as wildfire in all nearby places as why a famous elder like him could not give solution to such a trivial issue. After two weeks a big gathering was there in that place to hear what solution the elderly person is going to give to the couple. The elderly person sat on his seat and called the boy, the son of the couple and said, “Son, do not eat sweet so much as it is harmful for your health. Listen to your parent’s advice.”
There was pin drop silence there as everyone, including the parents of the boy, were surprised as to why the elderly person took two weeks to address a little issue like this and thought that he could have said the same on the first day itself.
Realizing this, the elder said, “First you have to follow what you preach others then only you will be in a situation to address the problem thoroughly. When the parents of that boy came to me with the problem, I myself was not in control to curb my desire to eat sweets. So how could I advise him while I am one of the victims addicted to sweets? So first I myself restrained for eating sweet for all these days. Then only I was able to say the same to the child.”
Is it not a marvelous story how we should practice before we preach?
Now coming to the statement ‘It is always easier to preach than practice’. We always complain about the corruption and solutions to curb this but when it comes to us we seek a comfort zone and try to justify our acts with absurd reasons.
People may not believe what we say but they will believe in what we do. Nothing kills credibility faster than not practicing what is preached. A leader underscores discipline and timeliness, yet shows up late for meetings or a leader proclaims people to be the most important assets, and then instigates layoffs to boost profitability.
Preaching without Practicing! Matt. 23:1-14; James 1:19-27.
‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few’ Mat.9:37. But sarcastically now a days we find preachers are in plenty and practitioners are few.
Time comes when the true religious leaders or believers are tested like gold in fire. The story is told about a preacher who caught a bus one day to go to the city. As he boarded the bus he paid the bus conductor Rs 10 as the fare. The actual price for the journey was however only Rs 9.50. The bus conductor returned the pastor 75 paisa change. After some time, the pastor noticed that 25 paisa is given extra to him by the conductor. He got up and approached the bus conductor stating that he was given more change in return. The bus conductor said, "I knew I gave you extra change. I was in your church last week and heard you preach honesty, and I just wanted to see if you practice what you preach."
I wonder, would we always pass such tests as we heard much about Shirva Church recently? The world is watching, the neighbours are watching, other groups and families are watching, the Lord is watching. The greatest good and the greatest evil to the Gospel, is not so much as to what we preach, but what we do and what we say.
Just I want share here some of my interesting readings on the above topic recently. Queen Mary was the largest ship to cross the oceans when it was launched in 1936. Through four decades and a World War she served until she was taken off, anchored as a floating hotel and museum in Long Beach, California. During the conversion, three massive smoke-stacks of her were taken off to be scraped down and repainted. But on the dock, they crumbled. Nothing was left of the ¾ inch steel plate from which the stacks had been formed. All that remained were more than thirty coats of paint that had been applied over the years. The steel had rusted away. When Jesus called the Pharisees ‘Whitewashed Tombs’ he meant they had no substance, only an exterior appearance.
We live in a spiritually troubled times in history. Christianity has gone over to the jingle-bell crowd. Everyone is just delighted that Jesus has done all the sorrowing, all the suffering and all the dying.
"Not everyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of heaven but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." It is at least important to practice what you preach if you call yourself a ‘Believer’. It is not only ‘Good News’ proclaimed but ‘Good News’ practiced that will win others to the glorious freedom of forgiveness of sins. Are you practicing what you preach? People are not bothered as to how much we read the Bible, but how much our lives are glorifying the Bible.
Preaching should come in abundance by one’s own practice. In other words, the Holy Spirit does not teach you all things to preach. No, it teaches you all things to do and then teach. Preaching what you do not practice brings out chain of events that were hidden from in the past. All there hidden things are exposed in an unexpected manner.
Instead of spreading lame stories, playing politics, conceiving gossips, acts of vengeance relating to recent Shirva Church incidents, every church laity must learn to tame their tongues, stop playing with the media, and instead help to bring unity to overcome the situation and staying true to faith in this filthy world. Those who are spiritual must do something with their faith and try to heal the wounds of the masses by remembering the number of sermons they had delivered in the past on such same topics during the Eucharistic celebrations. Then people will say, “Look, we are healed by those who practice than just preaching.” Is this not a beautiful lesson to the world?