Full/Lifetime Commitment To Christ

Living our life with Jesus is not meant to be part-time occupation: “ Whatever you eat, whatever you drink, whatever you do at all, do it for the glory of God.” (1 Cor 10:3 ). To follow Jesus is not to lessen our being authentically human. Rather to follow Jesus allows us to be human. In Christ we have a deepened grace capacity to be human. Jesus has died and risen. Whether we work or play, experience success or failure, are admired or ridiculed, taste ecstatic happiness or feel especially afflicted by the sorrowful aspect of human existence, we are dying and rising with Jesus.

Why should the world’s harsh dimension blind the Christian concerning its basic truth, goodness, and beauty? For to travel life’s journey with this friend Jesus is to share His vision, a vision which permits us to see the world’s Christlike image, which nothing – absolutely nothing – can destroy. Jesus loves each of us as precious, unique individuals. Allowing the realization of this simple but awesome truth to guide us is to walk the path which leads to the highest holiness. The committed Christian must consistently ask, “ Is Jesus really the focal point of my existence?” “How many Christians really listen to Jesus message and live it?” is a question I can ask but cannot answer.

“ How do I listen to Jesus’ message and live it?” is a question I should ask and can answer.

Jesus gathers up what are otherwise the all-too- fragmented pieces of my existence-the joy and the pain, the laughter and the tears, the success and the failure and molds these into Christlike unity. We are enigma to ourselves when we seek happiness apart from the way of Jesus, knowing within the depths of our being that following such path, leads to hideous frustration. This or that person may not realize our present suffering. But Jesus knows and He cares. His tender and reassuring touch, we can vividly experience in all sorts of situation, and sometimes when we least expect it. Jesus looked at me, His gaze was so attractive, He has reached out and touch me, and brought me to His heart. This has been by happiness. He has left His indelible imprint upon the human condition by the way He loved – in laughter and in tears, in work and in relaxation, in suffering and in rejoicing.

Jesus knows our weakness far better than we ourselves. Still He expects great things of us. Indeed: our weakness plus His strength can accomplish the marvelous, whether the marvelous be hidden or well-known, whether it appear to others as extremely important or seemingly insignificant. As St. Paul tells us “ My one hope and trust is that I shall never have to admit defeat, but that now as always I shall have the courage for Christ to be glorified in my body, whether or by my death. Life to me, of course, is Christ, but then death would bring me something more….”( Ph 1:20:21 ).

Province of Alessandria