Imitating Christ - The Calling
Faustino de Jesús Zamora Vargas
SUMMARY: The Christ that came to Latin America from Europe was a sad and graceless Christ, only inspiring compassion and pity. We need to imitate the living Christ, the Redeemer who gives new life, forgives sins and sorrows, and brings peace. Christ has given us an identity, and to know Him is to know who we are called to imitate. Paul urged us to imitate him as he imitated Christ. Today, many people claim to follow Christ, but how many try to imitate him? Only Christ is worthy of imitation, and we have been called to imitate him. God bless us on this spiritual journey.
This is an invitation to imitate the living Christ. The Christ who came to us Latin Americans from 16th century Europe with colonialism and who accompanied us until the beginning of the 20th century was the symbol of the culture of suffering and death. A sad Christ , portrayed or sculpted basically in two facets and attitudes: like a tender child with celestial eyes in the lap of his earthly mother; or as an adult, with his eyes closed, a bloody, dying, mystical, powerless body, his lacerated and wounded body showing the imprint of all the wrath of men and of God, soulless, hopeless, powerless. A Christ only to inspire compassion and pity. A graceless Christ, "crushed by our iniquities" (Isaiah 53.5), but without perspective for humanity. In that imported Christ there were no signs of victory over the cross; the resurrection and the life for hope of sinners were absent from the visual message. Being challenged to preach the Good News against this background of sadness and death seems to be an almost impossible act. Who to imitate? Why imitate it?
The message is not complete without the living Christ: the Christ the Redeemer; the giver of new life, the sweeper of sins and sorrows, the one who forgives, the one who crowns with grace and brings incomprehensible peace to the human mind and heart, the one who humbles himself and was obedient to the Father until death (Philippians 2 ), the one who answers the prayer that rises according to his will. We must imitate this.
Christ has given us an identity, which means that we are all identical (equal) in Him and that reason alone is enough for us not to rest in the essential and difficult task of trying to get to know Him more every day. To know Him is to know the one who sent Him. If we do not know the example (the model), then we do not know who we are going to imitate. Who knows Christ, his mind, his heart, enough to call himself a 100% Christian? Who has imitated him in such a way that he has reached the highest degree of holiness? The goal is Christ, the race towards Him is itself the challenge to run regardless of the prize. Paul declared to the Corinthians: “Be imitators of me, as I also am of Christ. (1 Cor 11.1) and to the Ephesians: "Be therefore imitators of God as beloved children" (Eph 5.1). Paul was not extolling his career as a follower of Christ, but providing an apostolic witness worth imitating because it was based on one truth: he was trying to imitate Christ.
Today almost a third of the world's population says they follow Christ,… but how many try to imitate him? Why imitate it? Because He is the center of history, the center of Scripture, the center and heart of His church's mission. Only Christ is worthy of imitation. I invite you, dear brothers and sisters, to look together at some of the most relevant aspects exposed in the New Testament that motivate us to imitate the living and incomparable Christ, with the request that He bless us on this spiritual journey. We have been called to imitate him (1 Peter 2:21).
God bless us!
The message is not complete without the living Christ: the Christ the Redeemer; the giver of new life, the sweeper of sins and sorrows, the one who forgives, the one who crowns with grace and brings incomprehensible peace to the human mind and heart, the one who humbles himself and was obedient to the Father until death (Philippians 2 ), the one who answers the prayer that rises according to his will. We must imitate this.
Christ has given us an identity, which means that we are all identical (equal) in Him and that reason alone is enough for us not to rest in the essential and difficult task of trying to get to know Him more every day. To know Him is to know the one who sent Him. If we do not know the example (the model), then we do not know who we are going to imitate. Who knows Christ, his mind, his heart, enough to call himself a 100% Christian? Who has imitated him in such a way that he has reached the highest degree of holiness? The goal is Christ, the race towards Him is itself the challenge to run regardless of the prize. Paul declared to the Corinthians: “Be imitators of me, as I also am of Christ. (1 Cor 11.1) and to the Ephesians: "Be therefore imitators of God as beloved children" (Eph 5.1). Paul was not extolling his career as a follower of Christ, but providing an apostolic witness worth imitating because it was based on one truth: he was trying to imitate Christ.
Today almost a third of the world's population says they follow Christ,… but how many try to imitate him? Why imitate it? Because He is the center of history, the center of Scripture, the center and heart of His church's mission. Only Christ is worthy of imitation. I invite you, dear brothers and sisters, to look together at some of the most relevant aspects exposed in the New Testament that motivate us to imitate the living and incomparable Christ, with the request that He bless us on this spiritual journey. We have been called to imitate him (1 Peter 2:21).
God bless us!
