Consideration — On the Imitation of Christ’s Private Life
Since most of our progress in virtue is to be effected by our imitation of Christ’s private life, it is worth while adding to the meditation we have made on that subject some further appropriate considerations. Let us examine in what exactly lay the excellence of that great model.
I
It did not consist in the use of extraordinary austerities, such as were practised by St. John the Baptist, whose holiness was so highly extolled by the Saviour Himself. That would not have been a suitable model of imitation for mankind generally. Christ’s sanctity was of course infinitely superior; and it is the pattern on which our virtue must be modeled.
In fact Christ’s private life was not distinguished from the common lives of men by unusual bodily hardships. Millions of men and women in our day, and in civilized lands, toil harder and enjoy fewer material comforts than did the Holy Family. See how hard is the lot of vast numbers of our laboring classes. See them going to their work at early morning, carrying their cold lunches in their baskets, their only support for the toils of the day. Their labor is fatiguing and protracted, often quite exhausting, as is manifested by the bent forms and wasted frames of so many of them. All day they hear rebukes, harsh and gross language; and with their best efforts very many can scarcely earn enough to keep up their strength. And when they return at night, exhausted and begrimed with dirt, they have no comfortable cottage to rest their wearied limbs; only some room in a tenement house, or in a garret or cellar, crowded together with their wives and children, amidst a rude and often vicious crowd of associates. Compared to their life that of the Holy Family was one of decent comfort.
II
What then made the life of Christ so very holy and so very meritorious? Especially two qualities.
1. Of course His Divine Person gave infinite merit to every act performed by Him in His human nature. Now it is a great consolation for us to remember that, by the gracious dispensation of the Lord, we too are children of God, adopted brothers of Christ, as long as we live in the state of grace; and, by the aid of the Holy spirit, who is diffused in our hearts, we can make our acts worthy of supernatural reward. And all this merit keeps on accumulating throughout our conscious life, unless it be lost by mortal sin. Our principal fear ought ever to be lest we thus foolishly lose it, and our bitterest regret if we have done so.
2. The second source of holiness in Christ was the perfection of his intention, ever aiming purely at the glory of His Heavenly Father. This also we can and we ought to imitate, with the help of grace offered us for this purpose. Here lies in fact the principal means of improving our resemblance to Christ. And we can do so constantly, even in our commonest actions, as the Apostle teaches us saying: “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (I Cor. x, 31).
It is a very appropriate occupation for the time of the yearly retreat to examine carefully to what extent we act habitually for a supernatural intention, one resting on the faith, and not merely directed to some natural advantage. It is the intention that determines the true value of every human act. Whatever is done for some temporal good alone can only claim a temporal reward. What am I habitually working for? Is it only for some material or intellectual success? Or am I actuated to a great extent by a merely natural impulse? Even though such impulse be not sinful, not opposed to reason, still it is so much time and energy wasted on the things of earth, and cannot add to my eternal happiness. To act thus, as far as supernatural reward is concerned, is without result, as one would waste his time and labor who would spend hours in sewing without thread, or writing without ink in his pen.
People do not act so foolishly in the affairs of this life; but very many do so in the things of eternity. Is not a great portion of my own life thus habitually wasted by the want of a supernatural intention? What improvement can I make in this matter?
III
We are explicitly warned by our Blessed Saviour against two copious sources of waste of time and labor.
1. The first regards actions which appear to be very reasonable and virtuous; for instance the exercises of kindness to our friends and relatives, or the practice of any other natural virtues in human intercourse. Of all these Christ said: “If you love them that love you, what reward shall you have? Do not even the publicans this? And if you salute your brethren only, what do you do more? Do not also the heathens this?” (St. Matth. v, 46-47). We ought to love our friends for God’s sake.
2. The second source of waste is a very copious one among men, even among religious; namely doing what is quite proper, but only to gain the esteem of others.
This regard for the good opinion of our fellow-men is not sinful in itself, as is erroneously supposed by some pious writers, who would have penitents accuse themselves in Confession of vanity when they have said or done anything to attract favorable attention or gain praise. Every sin is essentially a violation of a law of God. But there is no law of God forbidding us to seek the approbation of sensible persons. Does a boy sin by trying to please his parents? Does a student sin by trying to gain a prize? Jansenists would think so, but such is not Catholic doctrine.
The desire of praise is a constant encouragement to the practice of the natural virtues. Sin enters when praise is sought for doing what is unreasonable, or when we take all the credit of good conduct to ourselves, forgetting that our very goodness is a gift of God. For this is blamed by St. Paul: “What hast thou that thou hast not received? and if thou hast received, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received?” (I Cor. iv, 7). There is unfortunately plenty of sin in the world; but we must avoid increasing it by forming false consciences.
Yet, even when reasonable praise is sought, and no sin committed, there may be great evil in the loss of merit for Heaven; and the imitation of Christ will teach us to avoid that evil. He acted in all things for the glory of His Heavenly Father. “I seek not my own glory,” He said to the Jews; and again: “He that sends me is with me,—for I do always the things that please him” (St. John viii, 50, 29). By imitating the Saviour in this, we become more and more like unto Him, and we lay up abundant treasures for Heaven.
But He earnestly warns us not to lose such precious merit, saying: “Take heed that you do not your justice before men, to be seen by them; otherwise you shall not have reward of your Father, who is in Heaven” (St. Matth. vi, 1). And speaking, in the next verse of the hypocrites who gave alms that they might be seen by men, the Saviour adds: “They have received their reward.”
But the loss of supernatural reward is not the only evil resulting from the seeking of human praise; for, though, as we have seen, seeking such honor is not in itself a sin, still it is very often the cause of sin, even of mortal sin. For praise is very apt to affect the mind somewhat as intoxicants affect the body; it arouses an inordinate greed of more and more of the stimulant. The more we get of it, the more are various passions aroused within us, and we are likely to become ambitious of honor and of superiority over others, conceited and contemptuous of others, becoming infatuated with our supposed good qualities; in a word we gradually become proud, and a proud man is an abomination to the Lord, or, as St. Luke expresses it: “That which is high to men is an abomination before God” (xvi, 15).
IV
A third cause that made the life of Christ so holy was that He did everything perfectly well: “He hath done all things well” (St. Mark vii, 37). Our goodness does not consist so much in what we do as in the manner in which we do it. In fact, during the thirty years of His private life, which we are now studying, Christ did no great things whatever. His occupations were of the humblest kind; millions of men are doing the same day after day; but His actions derived their excellence from the perfection wherewith He did them, and our goodness consists in imitating His perfect manner of acting.
The excellence of a masterpiece in painting and sculpture results from the excellent delicacy and appropriateness of every, even the smallest, detail; the beauty of a specimen of good penmanship does not result from bold dashes, but from the perfection of every single letter; and so the excellence of the life of Christ, and the lives of those who wish to become like unto Him, lies not in doing great things, but in doing everything excellently well.
Few of us, if any, have occasion of doing many great things in the course of our life; but we can all, with God’s grace, do a multitude of little things well, and thus resemble our Divine model. Our crown in Heaven will not consist of some one or two magnificent jewels, as does the crown of many glorious Martyrs, but of countless little gems, each shining with its own peculiar lustre. These are the lessons we should learn from the private life of the God incarnate.