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Thursday, November 19, 2009

A Question...

in response to this post from Fr. Ernesto:

"The Wrong Sort of 'Mere Christianity"

This question is for both clergy and laity, but especially clergy:

Why is it that we cannot, in all good conscience, say with St. Paul, "Imitate me as I imitate Christ"?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sometimes, I think I should say--Imitate me WHEN I manage in some small measure to imitate Christ.

Alix

John Roop said...

Fr. Greg,

First, thanks be to God for your recovery.

Second, your question is one which has haunted me -- in various forms -- for many years. Why does our faith seems to make so little difference in the world? Why are Christians not "better" than they are? More personally, Why am I not better than I am? Frankly, I am not yet ready to say with Paul, "Imitate me as I imitate Christ." But I am ready to say with him, and I do say with him, "This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief." Perhaps if I learn the truth of the latter quote, the former one might become a bit more true of me.

Pray for this sinner.

John

Anonymous said...

I don't know that this question had the impact on me that it's had on others. But then I'm only recently Orthodox.

Seems pretty simple, when I'm doing what Christ did, you do that, when I don't; don't copy my mistakes.

Imitate me "insofar" as I imitate Christ.

Considering I don't imitate Christ much at all, hopefully no one is paying much attention to me.