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Sunday comment
By Fr. John Wynand Katende |
Keep your word
Dec 21 - 27, 2003
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Read Luke 1:39-45 Judging from the different activities that place in the month of December, one is inclined to call it the month of fulfilment. Many people make it a point to fulfil their respective promises before the end of the current year, at least during the month of December. It is in December, that we witness so many weddings taking place. Man and woman want to prove their love for each other with an exchange rings a seriously promising to live together for better or for worse "until death do us part". Similarly it is in December we see many businesses trying to fulfil their motto: "Customer is boss", with a special Christmas package. By the way, December is a word derived from Latin 'decern'. It means ten. In the Roman counting the number ten is a symbol of completeness. It is similar to the number seven in the Hebrew counting. It should also be recalled that the month of December was originally the tenth in the Roman calendar. It is in the month of December that the promise of God for a saviour is being celebrated. Otherwise going by logic that the modern calendar is reckoned according to the birth of Christ - BC and AD, the birth of Christ should be celebrated on January 1. Because God has fulfilled his promise in December serves as an important motive and example that people endeavour to do likewise. Despite the thousands of years that lie between the making and fulfilment of God's promise, God still kept his word. The fulfilment of this promise started unfolding with the call of Abraham and the subsequent covenant God made with him. Instead of people reminding God of his promise, on the contrary it was God that frequently sent prophets to help people get ready for its fulfilment. This Sunday we are witnessing two ladies who an experience it being fulfilled and in a spectacular way. Mary, who has just conceived the promised saviour in her womb, by the power of the Holy Spirit meets Elizabeth, who too is already in her sixth month expecting the birth of John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus Christ, the saviour. In turn they are inviting us to join them in celebrating the God who fulfils his promises, no matter how long it takes. A promise may be described as an assurance that one will or not undertake a certain action or behaviour. A promise is a debt. It must be paid. Keeping a promise is sign of being truthful. Being true to one's promise is being civilized. Yet in today's' amoral world the culture of keeping and fulfilling promises seems to be dying away very fast. As part of the so-called "dirty game" many politicians take liberty to make promises they very know are beyond the possibility of being fulfilled. The electorate ends up getting a raw deal out of such empty promises. It is also increasingly becoming a habit for some school administrators to deprive intending candidates of sitting for final examinations simply because the intended examination fees never reached the account of the Uganda Many married couples find no problem leaving behind their spouses for yet other partners who were never included at the time of contracting the marriage. The same may be said of other vocations. A friend of mine, now working abroad sent some funds to a relative of his to help build a house in the piece of land this gentleman had left behind. But two years down the road the piece of land is still lying idle. What a disgrace and a disappointment! In civilized society one should admit with regret one's failure to fulfil a promise. Otherwise, people who easily break promises lose credibility. Let this Christmas be an occasion for us to learn from God to be true to our promises. I wish all readers of Sunday comment God's blessings at Christmas. |
� 2003 The Monitor Publications
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