Our Lord is our model in the spiritual life. St. Josemaria Escriva said, “The great secret of sanctity comes down to becoming more and more like Him, the lovable and only Model.”
St. John of the Cross wrote, “This life is not good if it is not an imitation of His life.”
Irish priest Father Patrick Gearon wrote, “We are holy when we imitate Him; when we act as He acted or would act under similar circumstances. And the closer our imitation of Him, then the holier we are … You are to learn to live the life of Christ, so then, you must first study His life. He came to lift us up by the inspiration of His word and His example. On Calvary He earned graces for us which are the food needed for our spiritual life.”
Father Adolphe Tanqueray, author of The Spiritual Life: A Treatise on Ascetical and Mystical Theology, pointed out that all people can and should imitate Christ: “During thirty years He lived an ordinary life, hidden and obscure; He was Subject to Mary and Joseph, working as an apprentice, a wage-earner, a toiler, ‘the carpenter’s son.’ This has made Him the perfect model for the great mass of men who have but lowly duties to perform and who must work out their sanctification amid humble occupations. His public life was one of zeal. This He exercised, now by training His Apostles, His chosen ones, now by evangelizing the multitudes. He underwent hunger and fatigue, enjoyed the friendship of a few, and had to bear the ingratitude and even the enmity of others. He had His successes and reverses, His joys and His sorrows. In a word, He passed through the vicissitudes of the man who lives close to his friends and in daily contact with the people.”
St. Josemaria Escriva wrote, “May your behaviour and your conversation be such that everyone who sees or hears you can say: This man reads the life of Jesus Christ.”
St. Teresa Margaret of the Sacred Heart, OCD, wrote, “My God, I desire to seek but one thing, and that is to become a perfect copy of Yourself. Since Your life was a hidden life of humiliation, love, and sacrifice, such shall henceforth be mine.”
St. Josemaria wrote: “Jesus’ thirty-three years! … thirty were spent in silence and obscurity; in submission and work … That big young man wrote to me saying: ‘My ideal is so great that only the sea could contain it.’ I answered: ‘And what about the Tabernacle, which is so ‘small’; and the ‘common’ workshop of Nazareth?’ It is in the greatness of ordinary things that He awaits us!
Father Gearon pointed out: “Perfection does not consist in busying ourselves with many things, in undertaking many things at once. Perfection does not consist in doing extraordinary things, but in doing ordinary things in an extraordinary way.”
Think of what St. Alphonsus and others say of a single Communion, that it is enough of itself to make a saint. One Communion of itself is enough to make a saint! What it all comes to is this: the only important thing in good works is the amount of love we put into them. The spiritual value of an action is neither in its size nor its duration. Its value is in the love with which it is done.
Spiritual writer Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, OCD, wrote, “One who is really struck by the thought that Jesus died for our salvation will want to return his love by wearing out his whole life for him, living it for him, offering it to him to be of whatever use he wishes, just as Jesus had spent himself each day of his mortal life for the glory of the Father and for the world’s salvation. This was the great desire of Sister Elizabeth of the Trinity who aspired to be for Christ ‘another humanity in which he might renew all his mystery.’”
Father Gearon wrote, “To spend ourselves and to be spent in the Divine Master’s service should be our motto as it was that of St. Paul. It is better to wear out than to rust out.”
基督徒效法基督
我主基督是我們靈性生命的模範。聖施禮華說：『成聖的最大秘決來自變得更為跟祂相似，祂是可愛和僅有的模範。』聖十字若望也說：『如果生命不是效法祂的生命，這生命不會是好的。』Patrick Gearon神父寫道：『當我們效法祂，我們就能成聖；我們要作祂曾作的或在相若的環境下會作的。我們越是效法祂，便越是聖的…你們要學習活出基督的生活，因此你應首先研讀祂的生命。祂來以祂話語和祂榜樣的啟發來提升我們。在加爾瓦略山，祂為我們贏得恩寵，這是我們靈性生命需要的食糧。』
Adolphe Tanqueray神父指出所有人可以，都應該效法基督：『在祂的三十年生命中，祂過著普通的生活，隱藏、鮮為人知；祂跟隨瑪利亞和若瑟，活於學徒的工作，賺取薪酬，勤奮的工人，「木匠的兒子。」這使祂成了大部份人的模範，他們有謙虛的職責，必須在謙卑的工作中成聖。祂公開的生命是一最具熱忱的。祂執行了，有時候教導祂的宗徒們、祂揀選的一群，有時候向一大群的作傳教。祂經歷了飢餓和疲累，享受了一些人的友誼，也忍受了他人的忘恩負義和敵對。祂有祂的成功和被推翻，祂喜樂哀傷。祂經歷了身邊朋友和每天接觸人士的變遷。』聖施禮華寫道：『讓你的行為和你的談話，為他人所看見和聽到的都能說：這人讀出了耶穌基督的生命。』
聖德蘭、瑪加利大寫道：『我的天主，我願望尋找的只是一件事，就只是要變成祢完美的複制品。因為祢的生命是隱居的生活有屈辱，愛和犧牲，讓我也得相似。』
聖施禮華寫道：『耶穌三十三年！…三十年寧靜，默默無聞中過去；順從和工作…，這大的年青人給我寫道：「我理想是這樣的大，只有海洋能予容納。」我回答說：「那樣‘小的’聖體龕如何？和那納匝肋‘一般’的工作坊呢？」祂在普通事情的偉大中等待我們。』
Gearon神父指出：『完美並不包括使自已百事煩忙，想能一次做到很多的事。完美並不包括做到很非凡的事，但卻在於以非凡的方法去做一般的事。回想聖雅風和其他人所說有關只是一次的聖體聖事，就是說已經足夠成為聖人。原因是：善行中唯一重要的是我們投放的愛的份量。行動中靈性的價值不在它的大小或持續的時間。它的價值在行動時的那份愛。』
一位靈修作者寫道：『被耶穌的死亡是為我們的救贖的思想所感動的人會耗盡他的一生還愛於祂，為祂生活，為祂奉上生命，做一切祂所要求的。一如耶穌耗盡在他可朽生命的每一天為光榮天主父和為普世的救贖。聖三的聖依撒伯爾，她有志於為基督成為「另一人性，那裡祂可以重新祂的一切奧蹟」，這是她最大的願望。』Gearon神父寫道：『活出我們的生命，為服務至聖主人而活出我們生命，應該是我們的座右許銘，也是聖保祿的座右銘。我們耗盡我們的生命遠比讓它銹蝕為好。』
