“Put on the Lord Jesus Christ...”

IF we believe that Christ is the pattern of our humanity,

the savior of our damaged humanity, the foundation of our life and of

our identity, the fullness and perfection of our humanity, then we

should give serious attention to this piece of advice from St. Paul.

          “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the

flesh, to fulfil its lusts,” St. Paul said in his Letter to the

Romans. (13,14) We have to realize that only when we are vitally

identified with Christ can we truly live out our dignity as children

of God, created in his image and likeness, meant to share in the very

life of God.

          We know that St. Paul was the epitome of a person who

suffered very sharply the conflict between the law of the spirit and

the law of the flesh. “I see another law in my members, warring

against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law

of sin which is in my members,” he admitted once. (Rom 7,23)

          In another instance, he made this reflection when he

considered the great privilege given to him by God: “In order to keep

from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger

of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take

it away from me. But he said, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my

power is made perfect in weakness.’” (2 Cor 12,7-9)

          We know that what St. Paul experienced, we all do as well.

We cannot deny that. And when we happen to be more privileged, the

stronger would be the temptations to spoil us. That is something that

we have to expect if we only have a little of common sense.

          We have to realize that no matter how saintly we appear to

be, the flesh and the other enemies of our soul—the world that is

alienated from God and the devil himself—will always conspire to bring

us down to sin. We have to be ready for this challenge.

          And like St. Paul, we should feel assured that Christ will

take care of us, if only we be with him. So, that advice of his to put

on the Lord Jesus Christ is truly something that we have to take up

seriously. We have to find ways of how to apply that piece of advice

on us.

          One suggestion could be that everytime we get up in the

morning, as we prepare ourselves for the day, taking a shower and then

putting on our clothes, we should remember these words of St. Paul to

put on the Lord Jesus Christ.

          We should think and feel that we are not anymore in our own

naked selves, relying only on our own powers that can only go so far.

We are now with Christ. In fact, we can say, “I am now Christ.” We

have to realize that without Christ, the sure thing to happen is to

fall into sin.

          Of course, the consequence of that assertion is that we

should enter into an intimate relation with Christ, knowing and loving

him to such an extent that even in our own consciousness and

self-awareness, Christ would be at the core and center.

          We should make Christ alive in us, constantly meditating on

his life and teaching that give us everything that we need to know

about him and about ourselves, and receiving him sacramentally in the

Holy Eucharist and the other sacraments.

          That way it would be Christ more than us simply who would

handle the different situations of our life that can include our

weakness, temptations, sin, etc. This, of course, is not a case of

baseless presumption, since Christ himself wants us to be with him.

“Remember that I am always with you until the end of time,” he told

his disciples that should include us if we have faith in him. (Mt

28,20)