Twenty-ninth Day — Imitation of Christ
1. The Son of God, when he united his divinity to our human nature, became the model of Christians. He is the head of the predestined; we are therefore bound to resemble him.
2. The manners of the world are carefully studied; but the life of Jesus Christ is hardly thought upon. Courtiers form themselves upon their prince; philosophers have been imitated even in their faults. Did we ever seriously strive to imitate Jesus? Have we taken any pains to follow his example, or to copy after the virtues of his holy life?
3. What shall we say for ourselves at the awful tribunal of Divine Justice, when we shall be compared to our model; when the life of Jesus shall be opposed to our life; his humility to our pride; his wounds to our delicacy; his sweetness to our anger and impatience, &c.? Ah! what a monster is a Christian without Christianity! baptized, and a slave of the devil! under the banners of the cross, yet a follower of the flesh and the world! We must then renounce our baptism, or conform to the life of our Saviour.
See whether you bear any resemblance to the Son of God, and whether you may be truly considered as a disciple of a crucified Jesus.
“Master, I will follow thee wheresoever thou goest.”
Matthew viii.
“Without cause am I a Christian,
if I follow not Christ.”
St. Bernard.