L
littleone
Guest
Since I was a child I wanted this way of living, and now, if you read this, with your heart, fashion your life on it you and I can have it. Help me Lord to let go please.
All too many look upon the Gospel of Christ as they do a fascinating story with inspiring and uplifting events and words. Yet, this is no mere storybook. The love and wisdom, the piety and power of Christ are far more than pleasant memories-they are vital realities that give meaning to our Christian lives.
In fact, there is only one thing that can give real meaning to our Christian lives and that is: union with Christ in humble and self-sacrificing love. To fail to achieve this is to let hitory pass us by. It is much more-it is to miss an experience of the greatest force in this life or the next-the infinite love
of God!
Saint Paul tells us that we must “Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus…Who emptied Himself.” (Philippians 2:5) Christ achieved the redemption of the world by a complete emptying of Himself. The truly Christ-minded realize that they can love God whole-heartedly only through a complete
self-emptying.
The first emptying, of necessity will be of all voluntary sin. Sin is a serious reality that makes a loving experience of Christ impossible ( Cukierski Family 2007 ). We must empty ourselves also of our natural yearnings for a comfortable and predictable life, of our prejudices and attachments, of our insistence on having things our own
way (self satisfaction). We must be willing to lay down our lives in small things for our brethren, just as Christ laid down His life for us.
With us, as with Christ, the final emptying will always come on a cross. It will be a cross fashioned by love and coming from the hands of God. It will be a cross that not only sanctifies us, but also redeems the age in which we live. It will be a cross most adapted by the wisdom of God to the individual needs of
each soul.
Christ delighted in the plan of His Father, even though it demanded a complete emptying of Himself-not that His human heart did not shrink from it. In fact, He actually sweat blood when He witnessed a preview of His final sufferings and death. He gave up what was hardest, even for Him, to give up-His honor and His
life.
The same will be true of those who unite themselves to Christ in humble and self-sacrificing love. God will gradually empty them of all that is not God, or of all that is an obstacle to the growth of His love in their hearts and lives. Our sacrificial love of God will always reach its summit with the loving acceptance of God’s loving designs in our lives.
Our minds must be taken up with the thought processes of Christ. Our hearts must be activated with the loves and desires of Christ. Our days should be absorbed with the memories and the works of Christ. Only then, can we say with the Apostle: “I live, now it is no longer I, but it is Christ that lives in me.” ( Cukierski Family 2007 ).
This I believe is “Love” of Christ to the fullest.
God bless
littleone
All too many look upon the Gospel of Christ as they do a fascinating story with inspiring and uplifting events and words. Yet, this is no mere storybook. The love and wisdom, the piety and power of Christ are far more than pleasant memories-they are vital realities that give meaning to our Christian lives.
In fact, there is only one thing that can give real meaning to our Christian lives and that is: union with Christ in humble and self-sacrificing love. To fail to achieve this is to let hitory pass us by. It is much more-it is to miss an experience of the greatest force in this life or the next-the infinite love
of God!
Saint Paul tells us that we must “Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus…Who emptied Himself.” (Philippians 2:5) Christ achieved the redemption of the world by a complete emptying of Himself. The truly Christ-minded realize that they can love God whole-heartedly only through a complete
self-emptying.
The first emptying, of necessity will be of all voluntary sin. Sin is a serious reality that makes a loving experience of Christ impossible ( Cukierski Family 2007 ). We must empty ourselves also of our natural yearnings for a comfortable and predictable life, of our prejudices and attachments, of our insistence on having things our own
way (self satisfaction). We must be willing to lay down our lives in small things for our brethren, just as Christ laid down His life for us.
With us, as with Christ, the final emptying will always come on a cross. It will be a cross fashioned by love and coming from the hands of God. It will be a cross that not only sanctifies us, but also redeems the age in which we live. It will be a cross most adapted by the wisdom of God to the individual needs of
each soul.
Christ delighted in the plan of His Father, even though it demanded a complete emptying of Himself-not that His human heart did not shrink from it. In fact, He actually sweat blood when He witnessed a preview of His final sufferings and death. He gave up what was hardest, even for Him, to give up-His honor and His
life.
The same will be true of those who unite themselves to Christ in humble and self-sacrificing love. God will gradually empty them of all that is not God, or of all that is an obstacle to the growth of His love in their hearts and lives. Our sacrificial love of God will always reach its summit with the loving acceptance of God’s loving designs in our lives.
Our minds must be taken up with the thought processes of Christ. Our hearts must be activated with the loves and desires of Christ. Our days should be absorbed with the memories and the works of Christ. Only then, can we say with the Apostle: “I live, now it is no longer I, but it is Christ that lives in me.” ( Cukierski Family 2007 ).
This I believe is “Love” of Christ to the fullest.
God bless
littleone