Chapter 6 -  The Imitation of Christ

At the start of His ministry Jesus read from the scroll of Isaiah "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour." (Luke 4:18-19)   This he acknowledged to be His work.    He has left it to the Church, as His body here on earth, to complete the task.   But perhaps there is more assigned to us because Jesus did not quote all of Isaiah 61:2 or continue further.   If we meditate on that we shall see the need for a Holy Church equipped to proclaim the second coming in judgement and we shall become "oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendour."

Further we recall that He said that if we had faith we would do what He did,[1] we were not just called to be like Jesus but to be one with Him.[2]  These are strong, positive words and we marvel at them, perhaps instead of believing them.   Meditation and prayer leads us into a realisation that if we are the Children of God, (Chapter 3), then our whole lives are to be modelled not only on Him but by Him.

In Paul's writings we find " We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us."[3]  Paul himself claims to be an ambassador.[4]  To be an ambassador means representing someone so we must behave as Christ himself would behave, and deliver his message of reconciliation.

But Paul also tells us to  "Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children".[5]    Not only does he direct us but he also reminds us of our position as Children of God.  

St.Thomas à Kempis, a Dutch monk who lived 1379-1471 wrote a classic book, "The Imitation of Christ".   He spoke of God as "a fire for ever burning and never dying down, a love purifying the heart and illumining the mind."[6]   It is not a guide book to the holy life but rather spiritual encouragement, much of it is a dialogue between the disciple and his Beloved.

So how can we imitate Christ?    All our efforts will be a pale imitation unless we can say, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."[7]  

I believe this verse to be a key, not an impossible dream that we cannot achieve in this life, but every "born again" Christian's birthright.    As I have read of the works of the saints, time and again I find this verse.  

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