VERY GOOD SUBJECT MATTER / POINTS FOR OUR REFLECTIONS FROM TIME TO TIME IN LIFE ON HOW ARE WE TRANSFORMED IN CHRIST? Transformation in Christ It is the most natural thing in the world to feel slighted and wounded at the hurts that come from this or that inconsiderate or thoughtless person. The memory of some hurts can remain for the whole of life, and together with those hurts resentment, anger and hate. I have heard of the sad tragedy of persons reaching old age and then declining into severe dementia. What makes this condition particularly sad in some cases is that the person can then be locked in with numerous unresolved and unforgiven memories that are the only images that fill their failing minds. They progressively lose contact with the present and all they have are various debilitating memories of the past. What a pity that, by then, love has not overcome hate in those memories, for those memories become a world of constant suffering to them! Even ordinary reflection and common sense indicates that anger towards one’s enemies, a desire of revenge towards those who inflict hurt, will not bring happiness. We are made to love, and it is love that brings happiness. But there is so much in life that makes it difficult to love and even, from a natural point of view, almost impossible. Yet our Lord’s words in today’s Gospel are very explicit. We are to love those who injure us (i.e., our “enemies”) and we are to do good to them. We are not to judge nor condemn. We are to forgive and we are to be merciful and forgiving (Luke 6:27‑38). As our Lord says elsewhere, we are to do all this without end – not just seven times a day but “seventy seven times”. In other words, love is to fill our mind, our heart and our whole life. What we are speaking of here is a root and branch transformation of the mind and heart of the human person so that love flourishes in his entire being. Now the question is, how is this ever to happen? At his baptism the Christian is placed in the Person of Christ. Christ envelops him and Christ embeds the Spirit of God into the depths of his soul. A new life begins there, and that life is a share in the life of Christ. God’s plan is to gradually transform us into the likeness of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. That wondrous transformation will involve replacing indifference, resentment and hatred with love. Transformation into Christ is the goal of God’s work in our souls, and it is the overriding project of life. It is the one thing necessary. When the moment comes for us to pass from this world to the next, the great work of life will have to have been completed. That work is, by the powerful grace of Christ, to have been made like him in our mind, heart and soul. St Paul writes in one of his Letters, let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus. As our body lies in its coffin, the question will be, have we been thus transformed? The one and only chance we shall ever have to attain this for all eternity will have gone. Will my transformation into the likeness of Christ and into a deep union with his living Person have been attained? If not, I go into eternity without him, and indeed separated from him. This transformation intended by God is to be utterly genuine and not just imputed to me. God will not just accept me in view of the merits of his Son, in view of the atonement he made on my behalf. No, God wishes to see me actually good and holy in my inmost being. He intends me, by the power of his grace, to have driven out sin from my heart and to have become like unto his Son. He wants to see in me another Christ such that I am genuinely loving those who injure me, forgiving those who have caused me harm, giving as Christ would give. This involves constant renunciation for love for Jesus, and constantly cooperating with his grace to make it possible. This grace comes through the Sacraments of the Church, through daily prayer, and through listening to and reading and then applying the word of God to my daily life. Let us take our Lord’s words in today’s Gospel to heart and understand clearly that they require a new mind and a new heart. They require and they nourish holiness, a holiness that is genuine and of the heart. This transformation into the Person of Christ is only possible through daily renunciation and a very deliberate following of Christ in my everyday life, and taking all means possible to receive regularly the all‑powerful grace of Christ. Christ in me, my hope of glory! (E.J.Tyler)
Posted on: Wed, 11 Sep 2013 16:12:02 +0000
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