In imitating Christ, you must love without barrier, Love beyond the Object, love sacrificially. Be honest with your love, with your reactions, empathy and concerns for your neighbour particularly, when they need you most. And so in the gospel of Luke, 10: 25 – 37, we see the Lawyer who stood before Jesus to put Him to test saying’ Teacher, what shall l do to inherit eternal life” and Jesus said to him” What is written in the law? What do you read there?’ And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself” And He said to him, “You have answered right, do this and you will live”. But the Lawyer pressed further to justify himself and asked Jesus who his neighbour is. And Jesus narrated the story of the “Good Samaritan” to buttress His point and the kind of love He is talking about. We all know the story of “The Good Samaritan” because it is a popular story in the bible.
Our Lord talks about genuine love and not the type of love that we see these days where people will fake that they love someone or love their neighbour only because of what they hope or stand to get in the long run. Today, Jesus is asking us to love unconditionally and sacrificially for the love of God. Often times, we see well- positioned men and women in our society giving alms to the poor, the less privileged and also providing them with three square meals daily but find it difficult to give them the means to fend for themselves and become independent. We are all familiar with the adage that says,” give me the hook to fish and not give me just fish to eat” But no, many will rather give out peanuts to people rather than set them up to become successful and feed themselves. This reminds me of the passage in the bible where we read about the Pharisees who were angry with Jesus for healing the man with a withered hand on a Sabbath, however, they proudly gave the same man with the withered hand alms every day including on Sabbath but criticized Jesus for healing the same man on Sabbath ” Hypocrites”. So the question is, who is fulling who, is there any special day set aside for one to love or show love? Christ’s message is quite simple, “Love your neighbour, friend, or colleague, unconditionally always with all your all heart, soul and mind just as He has loved you.
Imitating Christ, requires us to make conscious effort to acquire the right training for our chosen profession or job. Christ worked as a carpenter, a trade He learnt from His earthly father, St Joseph. He devoted time to master the trade so well and carried out His duties diligently and perfectly well to the admiration of His customers. He executed these tasks with love and also sanctified them to His Father God while it lasted and He began His evangelical mission in the same manner with total commitment. We are therefore encouraged to be devoted to our profession, work and business and be good ambassadors that are worthy of emulation. We should always carry out our tasks, just as Christ did with love. Sanctify your work irrespective of the challenges you may encounter because when you do, you will work perfectly well knowing that your goal is to glorify the name of God and that your work will turn out perfectly well throughout our working lives.
It is a common knowledge that mothers love their children very much and unconditionally too, at least that is the expectation of the society. Mothers are expected to dedicate themselves to the well- being of their children and family at large. Yes, this was what Jesus did for us. He sacrificed so much to save us from original sin and still forgives the sins that we continued to commit daily all because of the love He has for us. Jesus ensures that we are protected and are happy despite our flaws and inconsistences. And so, mothers are called to emulate Jesus and imitate His love for humanity. They need to ask the Holy Spirit to guide and to help them carry out this special assignment of theirs with diligence and dedication which Jesus exhibited while carrying out the “will” of His Father “God” on earth, Amen.
Mothers are encouraged to sanctify their family to God just as they sanctify their work so that they will devote time to taking care of their children and wards as they take care of their jobs. And for them to succeed, they need to know how to run a home, how to be a good administrator of money and equipment at their disposal. They should ensure that the house is always bright and cheerful and pleasantly arranged to taste rather than in luxury so, that the whole family can feel at home whenever they come home. They need to study and understand the character of their children, husbands and wards and to know what they need to do and how to go about getting their children and their wards to improve in matters relating to their individual behavior. They need to be firm and at the same time gentle and uncomplicated. Just as Our Lord Jesus, used the story of “The Good Samaritan” to explain to the Lawyer who his neighbour is, mothers need to carry out their tasks effectively and thoroughly using good character stories as examples to buttress their points during family get- together. They should keep to a predetermined time-table and should not waste time in endless conversations. For them to maintain discipline, they ought to avoid switching on the television set at any random time but rather factor the time for that in their time- table, for both themselves and the children so as to avoid distraction.
So, to imitate Christ, we need to follow the examples of Jesus Christ. He loved unconditionally. He gave and healed the sick without expecting anything in return. He sacrificed so much to put smiles on the faces of the poor, the hungry and the rejected without complaining. Let us therefore go and do same. We should remember that the idea of imitating Christ has been an important element of both Christian ethics and sympathy. May God help us.
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