Commitment, a Sure Path to Greatness (Saturday, Week 10, Year II)

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Greatness doesn't fall from the trees like dry leaves. It does not come to us on a platter of gold. It is something that we must work for. We see and hear about great people (for example, the saints) and we are filled with admiration for them. But we must also admire the positive attitudes and mindsets that transformed them into giants. One thing very certain is that great people are those who made serious "TURNING POINTS" at certain moments in their lives. 

By the way, what is a TURNING POINT? A turning point is that very auspicious moment when we must break away from and say goodbye to our ugly past(s) and be committed enough to embrace the future more positively. It won't be as easy as it is described: it must involve a TOTAL and RADICAL COMMITMENT TO TRUTH and HARDWORK, and must leave no room for COMPROMISE WITH FALSEHOOD.

In 1 Kings 19:19.21, when Elijah called Elisha to succeed him by the ritual act of "casting of the mantle upon Elisha", Elisha performed a ritual of "slaughtering of the oxen and burning of the plough" in order to strongly communicate that he has completely made a radical turn from his old manner of life, from his old profession (for he was a farmer before he was called to prophethood).

This is exactly what we promise God at various times, at various occasions in our lives: to turn a new leaf, to reject evil and to be radically committed to a new way of life. How truthful and committed are we to all those promises we make to God and to ourselves, how committed are we to the new life that we have embraced? 

At those times we have made some TURNING POINTS in our life's journey, we said YES to God, YES to growth, YES to hardwork, YES to sincerity, YES to love and YES to positivity; and said NO to LAZINESS, NO to wickedness, NO to "worldly" desires, NO to worldly cravings and standards. Jesus gently reminds us and encourages us in the Gospel of today to "let our YES be YES and our NO be NO" (cf. Matt. 5:37).


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