Reflection on the Word for the Sunday of May 1, 2022 Follow Me, Said Jesus – JOHN : 21:17 He said to him the third time, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, "Do you love me?" And he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep. 21:18 Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go." 21:19 (He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, "Follow me." …………………………………………………………………………… Following Jesus is our privilege and also our duty. But what does it really mean? Some people suggested throughout the history of Christianity, like Thomas Kempis, that following Jesus means to imitate him, as Jesus commanded the disciples in the end of the Gospel of Mark that “These signs will be with those who believe. They will drive demons out of people by using my name. They will speak new languages. They will take up snakes. If they drink poison, it will not make them sick. They will put their hands on sick people and sick people will get well again.'” In the middle of the 15th century Thomas Hammerlein of Kempen, a German-Dutch cleric, a sub-prior of a monastery, even wrote a full book about this issue, entitled the Imitation of Christ, one of the most popular and best known Christian devotional books, ever written. Sir Thomas More, a Lord High Chancellor of England, once, in 1532, he said that it was one of the three books everybody ought to own. It is a big deal, when we consider that the Bible was supposedly also in these three books. Probably, Sir Moore held that the Utopia is the third one, what he wrote, himself. The Methodist founder, John Wesley said it too, that the Imitation of Christ was the best summary of the Christian life, he had ever read. It became soon a the devotional classic that has been translated into over 50 languages. However, that position, that we can or we must imitate Christ, might have been a little bit an overestimation of human capabilities, at least regarding the general population. Once happened, that the disciples competed each other that who is greater among them, after Jesus of course. Two of them, John and his brother James asked of him the positions of second and third in command to be given to them. But Jesus said to them that "You don't know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" They were confident in themselves to answer Jesus that yes, they can do it. Jesus told them, yes maybe you can drink the bitter cup (of death), "but to sit at my right hand and at my left hand is not mine to give, but for whom it has been prepared by God." (Mark:10:40) The other disciples heard the arguments and they got annoyed by John and James, that they crossed a possibly divine line of uncrossable boundaries. And they were right. None can be in the exactly same boots as Jesus. However, it is not only that, that the completely full imitation of Jesus is naturally and supernaturally impossible, but it is not even necessary, nor genuine or authentic. Actually, we can go even further than that, like it is practically and rather forbidden. Because, we are all unique, as unrepeatable occurrences of this very universe among the parallel universes of several dimensions out there, as the Psalm 8 says, that "For God has made man a little lower than the angels, And crowned him with glory and honor." So then, what is or what should be our aim, when we try to follow Jesus? Our aim can not be less than Heaven itself, as we walk with Him, we are expected to arrive to Heaven, applying for admission into Heaven, based on our personal fellowship with Jesus. But what kind of relationship we should cultivate with Jesus? What is the requirement of entering Heaven, beside the exclusion, when Jesus said to his disciples in the Gospel of Matthew that, "Most assuredly I say to you, a rich man will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven with great difficulty. Nonetheless, he told the young man, the seeker of the truth, that in order to enter eternal life, you have to keep the commandments. Which ones? The young man asked. You know them, said Jesus. "You shall not kill. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not offer false testimony. Honor your father and mother. And, you shall love your neighbor, as yourself." Thus, we should not mechanically imitate any other person, including Jesus, because it is a bit cheating, like copying somebody’s achievements, it is a bit delusional like misidentifying ourselves in a role-playing even it is a Christian-ish one. It is a bit aping, as well, like mimicking of behaviors or even emotions, but no creativity of the faith is involved. It is never spiritually healthy, when someone acts too servile like being a satellite of someone. Thus, there should be a revised rule in the imitation of the Christ's manners, that they must not constitute an external mannerism, which might be considered as an obsessive disorder, but a perpetual decision making process, where we have to follow the very same principles of life and love, Jesus followed. Thus, our relationship must be based on principles rather than on the personal and very much subjective glue we might have possess to stick to Jesus as close as we can. It looks like from the Gospels, that Jesus was really the teacher, who wanted his students to grow up and act autonomously according to the principles of God Commandments, which is practically the guidelines of the Holy Spirit. In the 82nd Psalm God said that "You are gods, All of you are sons of the Most High," meanwhile maintaining in the very next verse that " Nevertheless you shall die like men, And fall like one of the rulers." We do not only have the universally acknowledged duty to act, or else, but we also have the commissioned responsibility to act autonomously, as Jesus told them that “ I do not call you servants anymore, for the servant does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends because you know everything that my Father has told me. ” So we can not ditch or dodge our Christian duties and responsibilities by declaring that Christ had done everything already, there is nothing left to do, and we can enjoy redemption and forgiveness of sins without further and especially permanent efforts to amend our ways. However, as Christ did his share to redeem the world, so we have to take up our own cross to carry. We have to do our own share or even more to mend this incomplete world in order to merit the World to Come, as it is written in the Gospel of Matthew : “ If anyone will come after me, let one deny oneself, and take up one’s own cross, and follow me. (…) And he that takes not his cross, and follows after me, is not worthy of me. He that finds his life shall lose it: and he that loses his life for my sake shall find it.” May the Lord find us worthy in following him by the Holy Spirit, carrying our crosses for each other and for the community and for the world and for the sake of God, so we pray, AMEN https://korakowa.blogspot.com/p/sunday-sermons.html
