“Imitating Christ does not mean living a life like Christ, but rather living your own life as authentically as Christ lived his.” ~Henri J.M. Nouwen
We’ve all seen it or heard it before. It could have been in a scripture passage, a spiritual book, a church hymn, or even in a preached homily at Mass. The message was this: each and every one of us should strive to imitate Jesus.
“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”
In that one, single sentence, Jesus sums up what it really means to be a Christian. There is so much depth in that sentence that we need to unpack it phrase-by-phrase to fully understand its meaning in our lives. Let’s look at the first point, one “must deny himself.” Read More
Today we remember Saints Peter and Paul: two men called by God to do great things. Two men who certainly were not born equipped to serve the Lord, but rather, two men who were equipped by the Lord to preach the Gospel and ultimately to give up their lives for its sake.
Peter was a young fisherman living on the coast of the Sea of Galilee. He was a man prone to outbursts and weak under pressure. He was unstable, impulsive, insecure, and cowardly. He often spoke or acted inappropriately, and was anything but a rock.
Paul was a highly educated Pharisee who persecuted Christians, even ordering the stoning of the first martyr of the Church, Saint Stephen. He was a bigot, self-righteous, manipulative, vindictive, cunning and opportunistic.
Peter and Paul were two unlikely characters for the Lord to call into his service and to establish as apostles of the Church. Yet the Lord chose them, transformed them, and entrusted to them to spread the Gospel.
God called Peter and Paul to use their personalities for the good: Peter to use his passionate love to look after the flock, and Paul to use his training as a Pharisee and his strength of character to ensure that the non-Jews would be welcomed into the church. It is a reminder to us that our strengths and our weaknesses can become God’s means of helping others, if we let it. We don’t have to be perfect for God to work through us. God can work through us, faults and all, just as he did with Peter and Paul.
Spiritual conversion requires the greatest miracle of all, but God’s Word is reassuring. If people like Peter and Paul could become deeply converted and change the world, then we know there is hope for the rest of us.
So, how is your Lent going? (I’ve been asking people this question a lot lately.) Have you been doing all the things that you said you were going to do back on Ash Wednesday?
© 2024 Deacon Allen Tatara Catholic Speaker. All rights reserved.
