A 5th Sunday After Easter Thought On Living the Life of Christ

On this 5th Sunday of Easter we'll build on our two most recent weekday posts on living the Life of Christ. The theme is particularly appropriate for our Easter Season.

During the week, we tried to connect with our daily work. As daunting or impossible though it might seem to many of us, we can and must try to think, speak and act as Christ might, even as we perform the tasks of our daily labor in our workplace. Our guide in this endeavor, Rev. George Zimpfer, helped us to understand exactly how we could do this.

Frankly, you can't just read those two previous posts and come to that exact understanding. What we did learn, however, was how to go about gaining that understanding. If Rev. Zimpfer's words made sense, we need to take time to fully absorb his points. But that's not all. We then need to find a way to apply those points to ourselves in a manner that considers our own personality, the unique individual that God created with His own Hand. And that means that simply knowing what was suggested won't do. 

Rev. Zimpfer explains:

“Familiarity, then, with the events of our Savior’s life is of immense value to anyone who desires spirituality. But a mere knowledge of the events alone would be sterile. Just as history is the study of motives rather than of movements, so knowledge of the Gospel events must always be less important than a true knowledge of the spirit back of the events. To be more specific, we must strive to live and fight for truth as Jesus lived and fought for it; we must attack ignorance and sham as he attacked it, with no complacence in our own superiority, clearly seeing the difference between the sinner and the sin. We must develop courage and fearlessness in facing the harshness of men and their deep selfishness, preferring to see them as ignorant rather than as malicious. We must seek to acquire some of our Lord’s patience and kindness, His charity and tolerance, His understanding and gentleness. These qualities and many others are what we mean by the ‘spirit’ of Jesus. They do not come to us magically by conformity to some religious Rule or by set forms of prayer and practices, however good these may be in themselves. The spirit of Jesus comes only as our own personality merges, as it were, with that of Jesus, as we reflect in our daily conduct His ideal of living. When this desire to mold our exterior and interior living on the example of Jesus colors our day’s activities, we call the result virtue – or spirituality.” 

We can't be satisfied with a superficial, or "sterile" understanding. We must take that understanding a apply it to our thoughts, words, and deeds every day. Fortunately, we're given a good list of specifics to help us know just how to do that, beginning with "we must strive to live and fight for truth as Jesus lived and fought for it." 

Re-read what follows those words and see just how clear, how specific Rev. Zimpfer can be. 

Once we grasp that clarity and specificity, we can then get down to the hard part: the daily struggle to keep at it until "our own personality merges, as it were, with that of Jesus."

Okay, it's not the simplest, easiest assignment to be given us in our spiritual life. But, as noted, "conformity to some religious Rule or...set forms of prayer and practices" won't suffice. We'll have to struggle daily.

It will help if we're in the habit of examining our conscience every day. It's an effective way to get a handle on all this. We'll know how successful we've been that day. With that knowledge, we'll find our individual specific strengths and weaknesses. Improvement can only come with that knowledge.

Oh, and don't think we'll get it all down in a matter of days, or weeks, or months, or even years. This is likely going to be a lifetime project. But lest we shrink back from what may seem an overwhelming challenge, just remember that God always sends us sufficient grace at the time we most need it.

Easy to say, of course. But isn't it worth the effort? 

Happy Easter!