At God’s pace

THIS is something we have to understand very well. If we

really are true to our Christian faith, if we believe that we are the

image and likeness of God and children of his through Christ in the

Holy Spirit, then we have to realize that our life ought to be in

vital union with God. We should be living and doing things together

with God, at a pace that is in sync with God’s.

            Patterned after the Son of God who is God’s perfect image,

and redeemed from sin by Christ who is the same Son of God who became

man, we cannot help but have to look closely at Christ who precisely

declared himself as “the way, the truth, and the life” for us.

            And if we do that, we will realize that as what Christ

himself told us, we need to deny ourselves, carry the cross and follow

him. In this way, Christ and us can be in vital union. We can be

another Christ, if not Christ himself, “alter Christus, ipse

Christus.”

            Our identification with him can be so perfect that

Christ’s words to his disciples can be applied to us: “He who hears

you, hears me, and he who despises you, despises me, and he who

despises me, despises him who sent me.” (Lk 10,16)

            And if we manage to truly identify ourselves with Christ,

we can benefit from what he promised his disciples: “Whoever believes

in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father. And whatever you ask in my name, I will do…If you ask anything of me in my

name, I will do it.” (Jn 14,12-14)

            We have to understand that this Christian ideal is not

meant only for a few special people who are given some special

vocation and mission, and who usually are endowed with special

qualities. No! this Christian ideal is meant for all of us.

            We have to explode that myth that somehow makes

Christianity an elitist kind of religion. It’s about time that we

present Christianity as it truly is, a universal call to sanctity by

striving, with God’s grace, to become “alter Christus, ipse Christus.”

            Yes, even those whom we consider to be ordinary people,

with hardly anything that can make them prominent in society, are

called to be “alter Christus, ipse Christus,” whose life, whose

thoughts, intentions, words and deeds should be in sync with God’s

will and ways.

            What can we do to pursue this ideal? Well, we just have to

make use of all the means Christ himself has made available to us in

abundance—the Church, his doctrine, his sacraments, etc.

            But on our part, what we have to do is first of all to be

continually aware of this ideal, and to start acting on it in any way

we can think of. We have to continually converse with God.

            If we feel awkward about this, if we notice that nothing

seems to come to our mind, we just have to persevere in praying with

full trust in God, like a child’s trust in his parents. In time, we

will see how our life marches along at God’s pace!