FAUSTO GOMEZ OP
God wants the salvation of all, and Jesus Christ died for all. Hence, we are all called by God to follow Jesus. Following Christ means accepting his call and being faithful to it. In this article, we focus on Jesus’ call to us.
Following Christ means being faithful to the call, the vocation to which He has called us. The Gospels speak of three elements in Christ’s call:
(1) The initiative comes from Jesus: “Follow me” (Mk 1:16-20). Our call, or our vocation is his initiative: “It was not you who chose me, it was I who chose you” (Jn 15:16). The call is a grace, a gift: no one deserves this or that call, or merits this or that vocation. One day we were called like Samuel: “Samuel, Samuel!”; “Here I am, Lord” (cf. 1 Sam 3:1-10, 19-20). Like the prophet Isaiah: “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us”; “Here am I; send me” (Is 6:8-9).
(2) The response to God’s call is today, not yesterday, not tomorrow! Yesterday is passed and tomorrow never comes! The Psalmist invites us:“Today listen to his (God’s) voice, harden not your hearts!” (Ps 95:7-8). Today, harden not your heart by not listening to God’s invitation to follow Jesus. Hearing Jesus’ invitation, the disciples immediately followed Him (Mk 1:16-20).
(3) The first disciples followed Jesus immediately and left their nets and families. The response to Christ’s call demands from his disciples leaving everything else (cf. Lk 5:11). It implies detachment, that is, making Christ the priority in life. Leaving everything means giving our back to the “world” and its idols and ideologies, and also denying ourselves, renouncing our selfishness and egoism. Indeed, “the first criterion of discipleship is to desire to renounce oneself” (Guy Lespinay; cf. Mt 10:37-39).
According to St. Thomas Aquinas, following Christ implies a threefold call to the disciples. The first is “an invitation to live in the proximity of Jesus.” The second, “to be his disciple.” The third, “to attach themselves to him completely.”
For the true disciples, Jesus becomes the determining factor of their life, which entails “a total attachment to the person and message of Jesus” (S. Galilea). Then, “We do not live to ourselves; we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live for the Lord; if we die, we die to the Lord” (Rom 14:7-8). Christian life cannot be ego-latry, but latria (devotion – adoration and prayer – to God), with the help of hyperdulia (devotions to the saints (veneration and prayer): first, and above all saints, devotion to Mary), plus dulia (devotions to the saints).
Detachment from ourselves and attachment to Jesus implies necessarily loving God and all neighbors, principally the needy and poor, and taking up our cross and helping other people carry their cross. Following the Lord after the Apostles and the first Christian communities means “nothing less than to take up the cross and to lay down our life for our brothers and sisters” (G. Lespinay).
__________“THE ESSENCE OF MAN IS NOT IN WHAT HE IS
BUT IN WHAT HE IS CALLED TO BE”________
In the community of disciples, the Church, there are different calls, distinct vocations and charisms, various modalities to follow Christ. Essentially, all vocations are equal, that is,“neither better nor worse: simply different” (M. Gelabert). In Christian perspective, all others are not just equal persons but brothers and sisters in Christ. What really matters for all Christ’s followers is fidelity to the radical baptismal consecration, which includes saying continually no to sin and yes to love, obeying and doing God’s will, being humble, prayerful, and compassionate, loving God, neighbor, poor neighbor, and God’s creation. Perfection comes not from any call or any title, but from fidelity to the particular call.
All Christians then – priests, religious men and women, lay women and men – are called to the following and imitation of Christ through the perfection of charity. Truly, there are properly speaking no “states of perfection” but “different states to pursue perfection,” the perfection of charity as love of God and of all neighbors and of creation.
Following Christ is not easy. Remember when Jesus spoke to the disciples of eating his Body and drinking his Blood to be able to have eternal life within us, many disciples left him: “This is intolerable language. How could anyone accept it?” (Jn 6:60). (Romano Guardini hints that, perhaps, Judas began to doubt Jesus from this time on, but it was not enough to leave him). Remember the rich young man who wanted to follow Jesus, but could not give up his possessions and did not accept Jesus’ radical invitation.
It is hard to be an authentic follower of Jesus. It is possible to follow the Lord by the grace and power of the Holy Spirit, which is the love of the Father and the Son. And it is truly worthwhile, for it is the best way to attain what we all want, namely to be happy here and hereafter. Indeed, “With Jesus, life becomes richer and with him it is easier to find meaning in everything” (Pope Francis, EG 266).
Once, a certain Aeschines came to Socrates and told him that he wanted to be his disciple, but he told the great Greek ethicist: “I am a poor man. I have nothing else, but I give you myself.” Socrates says to him: “Do you not see that you are giving me the most precious thing of all?” Barclay comments: “That is what the apostles gave to Jesus: themselves” (W. Barclay, In Mt 4:18-22). That is what any Christian ought to give Jesus: himself or herself, and thus be shaped, formed, transformed by Jesus, and live a prayerful, compassionate, and joyful life.
Words to ponder: “The essence of man is not in what he is but in what he is called to be.”
In our next article, we shall try to point out the main implications of following Jesus today.
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