The 3P Recipe: Proclaim, Practice and be Prepared!
February 7, 2021: 5th Sunday in Ordinary TimeJob 7:1-4,6,7; 1 Corinthians 9: 16-19, 22,23; Mark 1: 29-39
Remember those words of Mahatma Gandhi - "I like your Christ; but I don’t like you Christians. Because you Christians are so unlike your Christ." That great man had the clue to what it meant to be Christians - it is to be Christ-like!
To Live Life Christ-like... that is the call that the Word gives us this Sunday. To live for the Gospel, to live for the Reign, to live for the People of God and to love everyone with all your heart and soul: that is the life task given to you and me, and to everyone called in the name of Christ.
PROCLAIM:
Proclaim to the world that God is love! Live that love and spread it around, a true and genuine love that does not possess but a love that brings the whole world together. A love that reaches out, heals, frees, unites, enhances, enriches and rends every one whole. We hear a lot of voices today, that claim to be "christian" but speak of things other than love: they speak of condemnation, they speak of vengeance, they speak of violence, they speak of closing in, they speak of rejection of people, they speak of convenience rather than conviction, they speak of killing, they speak of establishing supremacies... are they truly Christian?
Proclaim, yes! But proclaim what? ...proclaim love, proclaim peace, proclaim wholeness - only that is Christ-like! When you proclaim that, you will have trouble. Because there are forces that stand for a heartless egoism, selfish development, inhuman exploitation and unbridled avarice! Now you will become the odd one out, when you speak of love and live for it. But still you will do it: because that is what you are called for - to live life Christ-like!
PRACTICE:
There is no great virtue in proclaiming alone! Today there are hundreds who are into it. Specially in those covid-stricken days, youtube channels and online sessions have proliferated. There are hundreds who are craving to proclaim, of course each with his or her own agenda! But which of these is truly Christ-like? To find that, one has to answer three questions -
First of all, to which band do I belong? Am I truly an apostle of love? Only I can answer the question regarding the deepest motivations of my soul. I may be ‘Christian’ by name, I may even appear to be so - but whether I am or not in reality, only I know, apart from the Lord who knows everything!
Secondly, if I proclaim the message of the Reign, the Gospel of love, does my style of life coincide with the proclamation. In simple words, do I walk the talk? Is there that moral integrity within me because of which I can command the evil forces with authority and they will go silenced before me! The authority that Jesus had before the demons and all other forces that challenged the wholeness of life, came from the fact that there was absolutely no discrepancy between what he proclaimed and what he practised. Can I command the same respect or authority?
Thirdly, if I identify myself with Christ and Christ's message, what do I do on a daily basis to justify my identity, stay relevant to my self-claim and be counted in that number? Will my lifestyle speak before my words ever leave my tongue? Will the values I stand for, make me stand before the Lord or cringe at His sight? Have I felt the burden of the Reign within my heart, an urgency that unsettles my heart, a passion that sets me afire?
PREPARE:
If I really take these questions seriously, and their responses, I will certainly be identified a Christian – but today that is not a great boon! The world despises what seems religious or spiritual. The world finds it offensive to hold on to your identity as a person of faith and a person of a spiritual lifestyle. There are the so-called ‘seculars’ who feel, it is infantile to speak of God or Church or practices of piety or virtues or ethics or values or standards of righteousness in life. There are those who think it is old fashioned to insist on heaven, hell, purgatory, last judgement, and the call to live a saintly life! What is my response? What would I say? Am I prepared?
May be today, the call that the Word gives us: to live life Christ-like, comes as a challenge. Are we living a life that is congruent to the message we are called to proclaim? Are we prepared to face the consequences of a choice of that kind – to live life Christ-like!