How to be another Christ

NOW that we are in the Lenten season, we can observe, thanks be to God, the practice of making the Way of the Cross more often in many churches. This is usually done not only individually, but also collectively, as in by families, organizations, neighborhoods, etc.

Let’s hope that this practice persists and spreads. But what I would like to happen also is that those who do it develop the habit of meditating on the different stations of the cross or the passion of Christ, since in there can be found, at least via a glimpse, the key to how one can be truly another Christ, as we should all aspire to be.

The whole message of the Way of the Cross or the Via Crucis may be summarized in that passage of the Letter of St. Paul to the Galatians where he says: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.” (2,20)

These words describe to us how we can be another Christ. And that is simply by imitating Christ in giving ourselves to God and to all the others, just as St. Paul said of Christ, who loved and gave himself for all of us.

Yes, St. Paul’s “qui dilexit me et tradidit semetipsum pro me” (who loved me and gave himself for me, referring to Christ) should always be on our mind. We should try to make this a fundamental attitude in our life.

With God’s grace, we have to learn to give ourselves to God completely and to all the others irrespective of whether the others deserve it or not, or whether they are friendly or hostile to us. We just have to give ourselves to them.

In this we have to practice a lot of patience, understanding and compassion, not minding if we can get something in return from the others or not. We just have to give ourselves. We should find joy in this, no matter what the suffering involved.

This is how we can identify and unite ourselves with the mind and heart of Christ. This is the kind of goodness and love that can overcome any kind of evil in this world. So, everyday let us give ourselves to the others as freely and as gratuitously as possible.

This may sound like madness if understood simply in human terms. But let’s have faith in Christ’s example and in St. Paul’s words. If we truly have such faith, we can be sure that nothing in this world can affect us badly, no matter how bad things can be.

We should just give ourselves to God by obeying his commandments, no matter how inconvenient or foolish they may seem. And we should just give ourselves to the others by serving them in any way we can, and by understanding them even if they have offended us.

This is the clear key of how to be another Christ.