The word "commitment" means, on the one hand, binding or binding, and invites to fidelity. But there are also "compromising situations", which call for prudence. Our times require a lot of loyalty, which strengthens the "good" commitment.
Manuel Blanco -Pastor of Santa María de Portor. Media Delegate of the Archdiocese of Santiago de Compostela.
The term "committed" refers mainly to two meanings that could appear on the same coin as its two sides. On the one hand, the reviled "commitment" consists of that almost "frightening" idea, because it is frightening, of tying oneself or binding oneself to something.
In the case of Christians, out of pure love. When a priest commits himself, he puts his powers at stake (after a healthy reasoning, he implies to the maximum his will to love with exclusive dedication). He begins a path of service and fidelity to God and to his cause of salvation. Obligations are contracted; word and honor are put at stake; fulfillment is sought; etc. A "me feel like it"healthy. The pastor of a village defined his commitment as an offering of his whole life. To God in the first place. And from there, also, as an identification with Christ in living for others. "This means that I have to pray a lot to the Lord." (he said), "to support the needs of the elderly, children, young people, couples, etc..". Mothers and grandmothers, professionals of commitment, reason in the following way when they have entered old age: "I don't want to bother"; "I'm giving you a lot of work". Those who have the joy of caring for them know that it is a pleasure to take care of them, even if it means a lot of effort. Jesus doesn't want to bother either, but he knows that we grow up with these responsibilities.
"Compromise" takes on another meaning: to meddle in something bad, difficult, dangerous, delicate. Compromised situations" are like the flowers of a carnivorous plant: in an instant they turn into devouring jaws. For example: should a priest, like any other parishioner, work on the making of the Nativity Scene until 3:00 a.m., or go to bed?
Prudence has always recommended to married couples to take good care of their love. During a preparation for this sacrament, a paradigmatic case was told: married man picks up married woman by car to go to their jobs. Couple's problem at the woman's home; unburdening during the trip. Understanding on his part, very nice. Broken marriages in both cases. A parish priest is exposed to situations where his heart can also falter like that of any other couple. Crises also knock at his door and the deadly sins nestle in him as in others. "Today I'm free, Don Fulano, I go alone to your house and you invite me for a coffee."Maybe not, but the master could be compromised.
A brief story of a good commitment: During a trip to Rome, some fellow priests and several lay people were taking a cab to the airport. They were returning to their country. One of the laymen forgot something in the lodging and decided to return; the others decided not to wait, as the flight was approaching. The priests waited and that person did not know how to thank them. They did not miss the plane; they had made a commitment; and they joked victoriously: "we did not leave".
The beginning of the 21st century requires a lot of loyalty, a precious word for good commitment. Logically, the Galician drug lords, like any other mafia, will have valued the unwavering adherence of their collaborators; but that is not where true loyalty lies. Nor do we owe them loyalty to our passions and miseries, which demand ever higher tributes from us, if we pay them the miserable homage of abandoning ourselves in their bewitching arms.
Our condition of loyalty to the Church does not frighten. She liberates. Of course, she gladly receives the surrender we wish to entrust to her. As she received that of the Son of God. The difference is that the Church invests this surrender in liberating funds. She descends into the dungeons and unhooks the shackles of selfishness; she puts them one after the other so that the human being can go up, as a family, towards the heaven of the free. Thus he inaugurates a new chain, that of solidarity, in which we support one another and where we are also supported by true friendships.
Authentic commitment does not burden: it protects. It rescues the world from the "egos" that have climbed onto the throne or the chair. It finds the "voiceless" and the discarded and treats them as brothers and sisters. When it says "yes" or says "no," it offers safe harbor in which to cement values and truth.
