4th Sunday after Pentecost Thoughts About Being Like Jesus

We continue our little summer Sunday mini-series about being like Jesus. How often we've read or been told how important this is. But when we think about it, we may wonder what it could possible mean. 

With this in mind, here are some more thoughts from Rev. George Zimpfer. 

    “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.” (Rev. George Zimpfer)

How important it is to read, to study Scripture. And how beneficial to include, of course, regular reading of the Gospels. It is here that we find Our Blessed Lord. 

But Father urges us to not simply read and study. We need to - best we can - find Jesus in His full humanity and divinity - the "real" Jesus Christ. He is the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. We know this. But He lived amongst us for a reason. He wanted to "touch" us in a human way. And so as we read the Gospels, we seek to allow Him to do just this.

In doing so, we learn how to be the man or woman He created us to be. Our daily concerns must  not be solely with our material welfare, but more so with our spiritual welfare. And these two are not - must not be - separate and/or opposed to each other. Father tries to give us specific advice on how our knowledge of Jesus Christ can enliven us to live full and complete lives as children of God.

As Catholics, we are privy to the clearest and deepest knowledge and understanding of the Truth. But knowledge and understanding mustn't be laid to rest in our minds, or even in our hearts. "...we must strive to live and fight for truth as Jesus lived and fought for it."

Re-read Father's words and we begin to understand more and more how the life of Jesus Christ serves as the ultimate example for each of us.

On this 4th Sunday after Pentecost, we might ask ourselves: Do we attack ignorance and sham as did Our Lord, without any sense of superiority, seeing the difference between sinner and the sin? Do we strive to develop courage and fearlessness in the face of the harshness and selfishness of others? Do we seek to acquire some of Our Lord's patience and kindness, charity and tolerance, understanding and gentleness?

Only if we attend to these, only if we strive to learn from and imitate Our Lord's example will we slowly but surely become more like Him. 

These are worthy matters to spend a at least few moments considering on this 4th Sunday after Pentecost.

 

Happy Sunday!