Becoming Jesus

[Mark Dohle]

Becoming Jesus

March 10—Crossing the Saint-Nicolas, Nantes.
“I am no longer on earth, so take My place.”
Bossis, Gabrielle. He and I (Kindle Locations 306-307).
Pauline Books and Media. Kindle Edition.
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I do believe, that the Lord does speak to us today, through certain men, and women. These communications are based on the Lord’s desire to draw us deeper into communication with Himself, based on his revelation of the Father to humanity. To see Jesus, is to see the Father. Jesus also said that how you treat others, is crucial, because He identifies with each of us, even those with whom we have little love or liking for, or may even have a deep-seated prejudice. His union with mankind (with each of us) is total. Those who take on the name of Christian, are called to incarnate Jesus Christ in their own bodies, or as St. Paul stated: “It is not I who live, but Christ Jesus, who lives in me”.

Our capacity to incarnate Jesus Christ is based on our capacity to allow His love and grace into our hearts. The more we desire to grow in love of God and others (a grace in itself), the faster our inner ability to embrace the love of God, increases. This happens through the process of self-knowledge, for the more we know ourselves, without self-hatred, the more we can love and empathize with others. So, how do we take the place of Christ? By becoming ever more trustful of his mercy in our own lives, as well as in the lives of others.

Unless we can grow in self-love and compassion for ourselves, we cannot show it to others. For to judge another, is to see ourselves and judge. Healing comes from embracing all that we are, in the presence of the loving gaze of Christ Jesus. As St. Paul says, it is through the fire that we must pass so that all that is not pure will be burned up. St. Paul uses the metaphor of stubble, stone, and precious stones and gold. That fire is the gaze of Christ Jesus and our allowing Him to remove all that keeps us from manifesting Christ to others. Not just by what we say, but more importantly, how we love and treat the stranger, the outcast, and the so-called refuse of society. No human being is ‘refuse’, but each made in the image and likeness of God, with whom Christ dwells. When we love others, we allow Christ Jesus to enter into their hearts. A heart open to true love, is open to grace, to Christ Jesus, even if they may not know that perhaps until the time of their death. For Christ Jesus came to save the world and not to condemn it. The deeper we see and understand, the more compassionate we become. Christ Jesus, who sees all, and understands all, how vast his compassionate for all of us must be. An often hard reality to embrace and believe.—Br.MD