We often hear the saying, "actions speak louder than words," and sometimes we may dismiss it, especially if it is inconvenient, and points out a deficiency in our own lives. It's relatively easy to state our beliefs as a Christian and to go to Mass on Sundays.
However, its quite another task to feed the poor, clothe the naked or visit the imprisoned.
Reciting the Creed on Sunday is easy, but putting that creed into practice is not.
Actions speak louder than words
The Office of Readings provides a cutting reminder of this saying through a sermon given by St. Anthony of Padua. He begins by explaining how we can preach in a variety of "languages":
The man who is filled with the Holy Spirit speaks in different languages. These different languages are different ways of witnessing to Christ, such as humility, poverty, patience and obedience; we speak in those languages when we reveal in ourselves these virtues to others.
St. Anthony then proceeds to cut to the core of the issue by using the phrase we have been examining above:
Actions speak louder than words; let your words teach and your actions speak. We are full of words but empty of actions, and therefore are cursed by the Lord, since he himself cursed the fig tree when he found no fruit but only leaves. Gregory says: “A law is laid upon the preacher to practice what he preaches.” It is useless for a man to flaunt his knowledge of the law if he undermines its teaching by his actions.
It's possible to be an "expert" on the Ten Commandments, or all the paragraphs of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, but to fail to be a Christian.
To live an authentic Christian life, we need to put our faith into action, loving those around us and not simply telling others to "love your neighbor." Before we can tell others to be charitable, we need to be charitable.
Practicing what we preach
We can't simply live an armchair Christianity, whereby we measure ourselves by how many Catholic Instagram influencers we follow. It really doesn't matter how much we appear to be Catholic, or how many signs we put on our front lawn.
What Jesus has asked us to do is to live out our Christianity, treating each person with dignity and seeing in them the imprint of God.
We will be judged at the end of our lives, not by how many articles we like on Facebook, but on how we truly loved our neighbor.
