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Posts Tagged ‘Christlikeness’

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Really Knowing Jesus

In Uncategorized on 2014/04/03 at 12:00 AM

(Romereports.com) Pope Francis explained during morning Mass at  Casa Santa Marta that to get to know Jesus, means that you must complicate your life. And that you cannot get to know him by flying “first class” in life.

POPE FRANCIS
“You cannot know Jesus without getting oneself involved with Him, without betting your life on Him.”
The Pope added that there are three languages everyone must speak to get to know Jesus. They are the languages of the heart, the mind, and of action.
POPE FRANCIS
“Yes, you have to come to know Jesus in the Catechism – but it is not enough to know Him with the mind: it is a step. However, it is necessary to get to know Jesus in dialogue with Him, talking with Him in prayer, kneeling. If you do not pray, if you do not talk with Jesus, you do not know Him. You know things about Jesus, but you do not go with that knowledge, which He gives your heart in prayer. Know Jesus with the mind – the study of the Catechism: know Jesus with the heart – in prayer, in dialogue with Him. This helps us a good bit, but it is not enough. There is a third way to know Jesus: it is by following Him. Go with Him, walk with Him. To go, to walk along the streets, journeying is to know Jesus in the language of action.”
The Pope also explained that many people ask themselves the same question Herod posed himself on Jesus: “Who is He?” The Pope went on to say that the answer can only be found by walking with Him in our everyday problems.
EXCERPTS FROM POPE’S HOMILY:
(Source: Vatican Radio)
“You cannot know Jesus without having problems. And I dare say, ‘But if you want to have a problem, go to the street to know Jesus – you’ll end up having not one, but many!’ But that is the way to get to know Jesus! You cannot know Jesus in first class! One gets to know Jesus in going out into everyday life. You cannot get to know Jesus in peace and quiet, nor even in the library: Know Jesus.
 
“Yes, you have to come to know Jesus in the Catechism – but it is not enough to know Him with the mind: it is a step. However, it is necessary to get to know Jesus in dialogue with Him, talking with Him in prayer, kneeling. If you do not pray, if you do not talk with Jesus, you do not know Him. You know things about Jesus, but you do not go with that knowledge, which He gives your heart in prayer. Know Jesus with the mind – the study of the Catechism: know Jesus with the heart – in prayer, in dialogue with Him. This helps us a good bit, but it is not enough. There is a third way to know Jesus: it is by following Him. Go with Him, walk with Him. To go, to walk along the streets, journeying is to know Jesus in the language of action.
 
 
“You cannot know Jesus without getting oneself involved with Him, without betting your life on Him. When so many people – including us – poses this question: ‘But, who is He?’, The Word of God responds, ‘You want to know who He is? Read what the Church tells you about Him, talk to Him in prayer and walk the street with him. Thus, will you know who this man is.’ This is the way! Everyone must make his choice.”
Rome Reports & Vatican Radio

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To Come Close to Christ

In 01 Daily Meditations on 2012/05/23 at 9:11 AM

St. Augustine  quotes Ps. 95  “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me” and comments:

Who created everything? Who created you yourself? What are all these creatures? What are you? And how are we to say who he is who created all this? To speak it your thought must conceive it…: so let your thought move towards him, draw close to him. If you want a close look at something, you draw close to it… But God is not discerned except by the mind, he is not grasped except by the heart. And where is this heart with which one can see God? «Happy the pure in heart, they shall see God» (Mt 5,8)…
In one of the Psalms we read: «Come close to him and you will be enlightened» (Ps 34[33],6 Vg).

To come close so as to be enlightened you must hate the darkness… You are a sinner, you must become righteous. But you won’t be able to receive righteousness if evil still gives you pleasure. Destroy it within your heart and cleanse it; cast sin from your heart where He whom you desire to see desires to dwell. The human soul, our «inner self» (Eph 3,16), draws as close to God as it can: that inner self recreated in God’s image, which was created in God’s image (Gn 1,26) but fell away from God into unlikeness.
It is true that we don’t either draw nearer or fall away from God in space: you distance yourself from God if you no longer resemble him; if you come close to him then you do resemble him. Notice how our Lord wishes us to draw close to him: first of all he makes us like him so that we can be near him. He tells us: «Be like your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good.» Therefore, love your enemies (Mt 5,45.44). To the extent that this love increases within you it will bring you back and reshape you in God’s likeness…; and the closer you come to this likeness by growing in love, the more you will begin to feel the presence of God. But who is it you are feeling? The One who is coming to you or the One to whom you are returning? He has never been far from you; it is you who fell away from him.

 

 

 

 

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“Carry each other’s troubles”

In 01 Daily Meditations on 2011/07/24 at 11:23 PM

Our Lord says: ‘I give you a new commandment: Love one another. By this love everyone will know that you are my disciples’. And Saint Paul: ‘Carry each other’s troubles and you fulfill the law of Christ’. I have nothing to add. (The Way, 385)

If we look about us we could find reasons for believing that charity is a phantom virtue. But if we then consider things from a supernatural point of view, we can also see what is the root cause of this sterility: the absence of a continuous and intense, person‑to‑person relationship with Our Lord Jesus Christ, and an ignorance of the work of the Holy Spirit in the soul, whose very first fruit is precisely charity.

In commenting on St Paul’s advice, ‘bear one another’s burdens and so you will fulfill the law of Christ’, one of the Fathers of the Church says, ‘By loving Christ we can easily bear the weaknesses of others, including those people whom we do not love as yet because they are lacking in good works.’

This is the direction taken by the path that makes us grow in charity. We would be mistaken were we to believe that we must first engage in humanitarian activities and social works, leaving the love for God to one side. ‘Let us not neglect Christ out of concern for our neighbor’s illness, for we ought to love the sick for the sake of Christ.’

Turn your gaze constantly to Jesus who, without ceasing to be God, humbled himself and took the nature of a slave, in order to serve us. Only by following in his direction will we find ideals that are worthwhile. Love seeks union, identification with the beloved. United to Christ, we will be drawn to imitate his life of dedication, his unlimited love and his sacrifice unto death. Christ brings us face to face with the ultimate choice: either we spend our life in selfish isolation, or we devote ourselves and all our energies to the service of others. (Friends of God, 236)