By Fr. Roy Cimagala
SINCE we have been created in the image and likeness of God, we have to remember that as much as possible, we should identify ourselves with Christ who as the Son of God is the perfect image God has of his own self and thus the pattern of our humanity, and as the Son of God who became man due to our sin, he is the redeemer of our humanity that is wounded, weakened or damaged by our sin.
It’s a truth of faith that we should be most aware of in an abiding way to which we should try our best to do our part in conforming ourselves to that pattern. That’s because as intelligent and free beings, our identification with the pattern of our humanity and the redeemer of our damaged humanity is not something automatic. It requires our knowing and willing correspondence.
That’s when we can say of ourselves that we would be truly loving, capturing the very essence of God who is love. As St. John said in his letter, “Deus caritas est. God is love.” (cfr. 1 Jn 4,7-8) Our correspondence to God’s love by following his will is what would comprise our love, since love is repaid with love.
While it’s true that we cannot help but love in different ways, shapes and forms, we can also say that we are already identifying ourselves with Christ to some degree. Every time we express love for some people and things, we are already identifying ourselves with Christ.
We should just make sure that our love is the love that truly comes from God as shown, lived and commanded to us by Christ himself. And how did Christ love us and continues to do so? Ultimately by offering his life on the cross.
And not content with that, he perpetuates this life-offering of his by making it a sacrament, such that every time that sacrament, the Holy Eucharist, is celebrated, that ultimate expression of love is actualized and made available to us.
We have to realize then that our ultimate identification with Christ takes place when we participate as actively as possible in the life-offering of Christ on the cross through the many trials, challenges, difficulties, etc. that we can encounter in our earthly life.
We have to prepare ourselves and organize our life in such a way that we can say that we are following this paradigm given to us by Christ. Our identification with Christ gets tighter and more intimate to the extent that we are willing and are actually offering our life to God through our love, dedication, service, help and a long etcetera that we can give to the others.
Thus, we should be looking for opportunities to serve and make sacrifices for others. We have to overcome the thinking that if we are lucky in this life, we would be freed from suffering and sacrifices. If we truly want to identify ourselves with Christ, we would look for opportunities to suffer, make sacrifices and even die for others.
That may sound crazy if looked upon only from the point of view of our human reasoning and estimation. But if viewed with faith and lived with the grace of God, such a prospect would, in fact, look most attractive to us, since that’s where we are one with Christ in the best way.
Email: roycimagala@gmail.com
