Following Christ

WHEN Christ said that no blind man should lead another blind man, since both of them would just fall sooner or later, and that no disciple is greater than his master and can only be perfect when he is like his master, (cfr. Lk 6,39-42) we are clearly reminded that we have to follow Christ in everything we do. Christ himself said that he is “the way, the truth and the life.” (Jn 14,6) Outside of him, we would simply be in trouble.

We just have to realize more deeply that finding Christ in everything we do everyday, making him alive in our mind and heart the whole day, and following him closely, is our daily challenge we face and task to carry out.

Is this possible and doable? Definitely! In the first place, Christ is everywhere and, more than that, he looks at us with great affection and solicitude. He always intervenes in our life, enlightening us, guiding us, and helping us in all our needs.

He is everywhere. We have to overcome the idea that Christ can only be present in churches or that he can only be accessed when we do some spiritual and liturgical exercises. Let’s not forget that even in the most mundane and technical things we handle, Christ is right there in the middle, since everything that exists can only exist if God in Christ through the Holy Spirit is right in the very core of it.

We cannot say, for example, that just because we are dealing with very technical things, God would not be there or that he has nothing to do with these things. Let’s remember that God is the author and creator of everything. All we do with respect to our sciences and technologies is simply to discover what God has designed for them and to make use of them, as commanded also by God who asks us to “subdue the earth.”

We just have to properly act on this basic truth of our faith, being as receptive and responsive to it as we can. In other words, even as we immerse ourselves deeply in the things of this world, we should never lose sight of God. We have to develop a certain spirit and lifestyle that can be described as contemplative, so that we can manage to see God and do his will as we go through our worldly and temporal affairs.

Thus, given the increasingly pressing conditions of the world today and the permanent, ultimate and most precious goal of ours, we really need to be more serious and more skillful in synergizing both the active and contemplative modes of our life.

Yes, we have to be immersed and get involved as much as we can in all our worldly affairs, attending to their requirements as promptly and actively as possible. But we also have to see to it that we do not lose sight of what is most important in our life—to be with God and to aim at heaven. “What does it profit a man” Christ said, “if he gains the whole world but loses his own soul?” (Mk 8,36)

We need to be both with God and with the world. These two modes of our life need not be in conflict. They can and should be put together to enable us to live a life that is proper to us as persons and as children of God. We have to learn to find the connection between the material and spiritual aspects of our life, between the temporal and eternal, the mundane and the sacred. And the only way to achieve that is to follow Christ!