BY FR. SHAY CULLEN
THERE are dozens of ways that people can choose to be followers and believers of Jesus of Nazareth. Going to church and praying is good and right and can be a powerful spiritual experience. However, Jesus wants us to imitate him.
Not all understand what Jesus himself wanted his followers to be and do after he was unjustly executed by the Roman authorities in Jerusalem. Yet his spirit lived on among his friends and followers, and he continued to be a powerful presence among them.
They were motivated by his words and actions, and his true followers tried to imitate him and do and say what he had done and said. There was no one to replace him, of course. He had no successor; none could fill his place. He was such an amazing person of absolute integrity, sincerity and honesty.
Today, he continues to live in Spirit among his followers, motivating and empowering them to continue his mission as he did then. As St. Paul wrote in his second letter to the Corinthians: “Now the Lord is Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom… this is the work of the Lord who is Spirit.”
Jesus was, and is, a great teacher with a mission to change the world and lift the poor and downtrodden from the poverty and hardship caused by the cruel oppressors who exploited and crushed them. This is the sin — the evil — in the world today.
He wanted to save people from the great sin of injustice and exploitation they suffered. He challenged the system of injustice and inequality that the powerful authorities imposed on people then. They falsely accused him of a subversive, saying — wrongly, of course — that he wanted to be an earthly king. He died for being a champion of the poor and oppressed.
There are still many people suffering because so many of them choose to embrace selfishness, greed and indifference to hardship. Most are failing to respect the dignity and rights of other people, especially the poor.
People in power allow poverty to grow so they can exploit the poor, dominate communities and nations, and grow rich. Dynasties concentrate all the power among themselves and their relatives, as in the Philippines, where they abuse their economic and political power. Their minions are corrupting the world with falsehoods, declaring bad to be good and lies as the truth.
This is the mountain of evil that Jesus said faith has to move. He challenges us to have that true faith to take action for justice, do good, speak out against and oppose evil, and follow his example. That is what it means to be a real Christian.
He began as the son of a carpenter and started his mission to bring a powerful message to the world through words and deeds. (To be continued)/PN
