By Fr. Shay Cullen
There are dozens of ways that people can choose to be followers and believers of Jesus of Nazareth. Going to church and praying is good and right and can be a powerful spiritual experience. However, Jesus wants us to imitate him.
Not all understand what Jesus himself wanted his followers to be and do after he was unjustly executed by the Roman authorities in Jerusalem. Yet his spirit lived on among his friends and followers, and he continued to be a powerful presence among them. They were motivated by his words and actions, and his true followers tried to imitate him and do and say what he had done and said. There was no one to replace him, of course. He had no successor; none could fill his place. He was such an amazing person of absolute integrity, sincerity and honesty.
Today, he continues to live in Spirit among his followers, motivating and empowering them to continue his mission as he did then. As St. Paul wrote in his second letter to the Corinthians: “Now the Lord is Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom… this is the work of the Lord who is Spirit.”
Jesus was, and is, a great teacher with a mission to change the world and lift the poor and downtrodden from the poverty and hardship caused by the cruel oppressors who exploited and crushed them. This is the sin — the evil — in the world today. He wanted to save people from the great sin of injustice and exploitation they suffered. He challenged the system of injustice and inequality that the powerful authorities imposed on people then. They falsely accused him of a subversive, saying — wrongly, of course — that he wanted to be an earthly king. He died for being a champion of the poor and oppressed.
There are still many people suffering because so many of them choose to embrace selfishness, greed and indifference to hardship. Most are failing to respect the dignity and rights of other people, especially the poor.
People in power allow poverty to grow so they can exploit the poor, dominate communities and nations, and grow rich. Dynasties concentrate all the power among themselves and their relatives, as in the Philippines, where they abuse their economic and political power. Their minions are corrupting the world with falsehoods, declaring bad to be good and lies as the truth. This is the mountain of evil that Jesus said faith has to move. He challenges us to have that true faith to take action for justice, do good, speak out against and oppose evil, and follow his example. That is what it means to be a real Christian.
He began as the son of a carpenter and started his mission to bring a powerful message to the world through words and deeds. Jesus went to the synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth, where he read the scroll with the words of the Prophet Isaiah:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
There and then, he took Isaiah’s words upon himself and made them his own. He said: “These words are being fulfilled as you heard them being read.” His mission was and is to bring good news to the poor, the downtrodden, the exploited, the abused and the trafficked. The good news is God is with them to free them from poverty and injustice. This mission must continue, and we should stand with the jailed, dedicated human rights advocates, environmental workers, and the falsely accused and unjustly imprisoned for doing good and saving creation. He brings freedom from ignorance, falsehood and corruption with the truth. He said: “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.”
Jesus challenges us to follow him and bring freedom to victims of slavery, sex trafficking, sexual abuse, exploitation and poverty. He challenges us to give sight to the blind by teaching the truth and enlightening them with it. By following his example, we have another way for humankind to live in harmony and peace, show mutual respect, treat all equally, and love and care for each other with compassion and justice.
Faith is believing with conviction that doing good, working for justice, and caring for the poor and abused would one day overcome wrongdoing, injustice and evil. That is Jesus’ mission, and he wants his followers to imitate his example.
A true Christian will strive to do their best to serve Jesus and fulfill his mission in their daily lives. We have to share our time, efforts, skills and wealth with the poor in ways to lift them out of poverty and pain by working to create an equal and just society. We are also challenged to imitate him: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. (John 13:34).” When he was asked how we are to love one another and our neighbor, he told the story of the Good Samaritan, who sacrificed his wealth to save the life of a wounded stranger. To be a true Christian, we, too, should do the same.
The author is the founder of Preda, a registered, licensed and accredited non-government organization in the Philippines. It stands for People’s Recovery, Empowerment and Development Assistance (Preda) Foundation
