CHRIST JESUS
Ιησούς Χριστός
Make your own the mind of CHRIST JESUS: Who, being in the form of God, did not count equality with God something to be grasped.
There is a sense in which the whole of Lent is an opportunity to ‘make our own the mind of Christ Jesus.’ I hear in this quotation the implication that if my mind is like Christ’s then my heart and soul will be too. The pages of the Gospels give many different insights into the mind of Christ. How we absorb these texts and try to live them is the work of a lifetime. In the classical language of the spiritual life humility emerges as a significant theme. It’s a theme that is very easily misunderstood and caricatured.
The famous scene in the Nun’s Story where Mother Marcella asks Sister Luke to intentionally fail her exam to show humility, is etched on my mind. Thankfully, the reverse has been true in my own living of the Rule of St Benedict. Humility is not a negation of who I am, but a call to be my truest self. In Benedictine life it involves, amongst other things, putting others first and trying not to order things in a way which is easier for you. In community life you see this modelled around you. Little by little you can learn to live what is modelled. You can’t force it. You need space inside yourself for grace to work. In time you learn that humility is as much about learning to accept a compliment with grace as it is about putting the other first. It’s about becoming fully human.
How has Christ called you to be your true self this Lent?
(Philippians 2:1-11, Good Friday)