Making a promise

[Guest Guy]

What if you swear on your mother's life and lie? Can you be forgiven? What are the consequences? Should you tell her?

[Luigi]

One can ALWAYS be forgiven, at least by God - the people involved may be more reluctant to forgive.

Swearing on your mother's life doesn't have anything to do with theology or religion or God - at best, it's a social tradition. If you make a promise and then you don't fulfill the promise, the person you made the promise to won't trust you any more, but again, that's social interaction.

Perhaps you think that a promise made on your mother's life is more like a vow? When we make vows, we make them: 1. to God (some religious vows, I think), or 2. to another person in the presence of God and God's people (for instance, marriage vows). But swearing on your mother's life doesn't rise to that level.

WHAT did you promise? To WHOM? What are the CONSEQUENCES of not keeping the promise?

I see no need to tell your mother - breaking the promise will not actually cause her to die. The assumption that she will isn't even a social convention - it's a superstition.

Talk to the person you made the promise to. Ask to be forgiven. Work to rebuild trust with that person. And in the future, avoid making promises sworn on your mother's life if only because it makes you feel uncomfortable and it's not really binding anyway.

(If you swore to God on your mother's life, remember that God has better sense than we do - God would overlook that kind of exaggerated promise. God would not hold your mother responsible for something you did or didn't do. That's why we each have our own free will.)