Life of Christ – Life in Christ
St. Augustine while talking about anointing with chrism in his second commentary on Psalm 26, teaches that “we who are members of His Body, we all share in his anointing as the Christ and in Him we are both Christ’s and Christ”. It is from this statement of St. Augustine that I gave the title of this article to emphasize that Christian life is Life of Christ and Life in Christ. It is life given to us through the Sacraments, strengthened, nourished, and guided.
Life of Christ: In the Sacraments we are begotten and formed and wondrously united to the Savior, for they are means by which as St. Paul says, ‘in Him we live, and move, and have being’ (Acts 17:28). Yes, through the Sacraments the life of Christ is given and made accessible to a believer. Through Baptism, we come to have being in Christ, through Confirmation we are able to move in him through his Spirit and through the Eucharist we live in Him and He lives in us. In the Apostolic Constitution Divinae Consortium Naturae: St. Paul VI teaches; “the sharing in the divine nature received through the grace of Christ bears likeness to the origin, development, and nourishing of natural life. The faithful are born anew by Baptism, strengthened by the sacrament of Confirmation, and finally are sustained by the food of eternal life in the Eucharist”. It is that life St. Paul teaches Christ: “died for all so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them” (2 Cor 5:12-17. The life given us is the share in his divine life, as the Eastern Church teaches, through the Sacrament we are “divinized” deified.
Life in Christ: What does it mean? It means hearing, accepting and obeying Christ’s invitation to his disciples, “Let us cross to the other side” (Mark 4:35-41). It is in line with St. Paul’s teaching “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation, everything old has passed away, see, everything has become new” Life in Christ means commitment to “go to the other side” with him, make a shift, a change in our behaviors and habits, leaving our old man and living a new life in the Spirit. For a believer, Life in Christ is constantly recognizing his presence, in our life and the life of the Church. When the Disciples were challenged by the violent wind, immediately they remembered that the “Teacher” was in their midst, they recognized His power and admitted that he could do something to save them.: “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”.
We are therefore, called and given the mission of daily witnessing to the Life of Christ, the Life of Christ in us. As St. Paul in the same text says, “we are ambassadors for Christ” and called to a daily life of conversion and the Apostle further urges us to “be reconciled to God”. Witnessing to the Life of Christ and in Christ is by faithfully living a life nourished by the Word of God and Sacraments, leading to maturity in the spiritual life, meaning the ever-increasing docility to the movement and guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Mary Mother of Church pray for us. Amen.
Fr. Justus, Parochial Vicar