Q: "In a post-modern society of shifting relationships, ever-changing situations, and a general sense of subjective reality, do vows mean anything anymore? Are they simply a promise of intent knowing that intentions do not always produce the desired outcome? Should we make vows at all, knowing the likelihood that we will break them?"
A: I appreciate the Episcopal tradition's use of answering many vows with "I will with God's help." It seems to me that while we have the authority to make vows and break them, we don't have the power in and of ourselves to wholly keep them. So why make vows? In a sense, I think my vows, kept or broken, call me into further dependence on God's Grace and the awareness of that fact. And perhaps dependence, rather than perfection, is more important to God. Making God's grace the foundation of our lives leads to freely living into our vows instead of obsessing over whether we have kept or have broken our vows at any given moment.
I suppose what I'm trying to say is this: my vows pull me further into God's grace because I know I cannot keep them without God's help. It is no surprise to me or to God that I have broken and will break my vows. And yet I am still loved, still being redeemed, and still continually called to holiness. Alleluia for God's grace!
Fr. James+
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