Tuesday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Matthew 18:1-5,10,12-14

“See that you do not despise one of these little ones ….”

For you to be a saint means to live your life in Christ, not just to imitate Christ. In grade school libraries they have series of books titled “Great Men of History”, which highlight the bravery of George Washington, the honesty of Abraham Lincoln, and so on. The idea of this series of books is the reader will be inspired by George Washington’s bravery, and want to imitate his example.

Are the Gospels like that series about great men of history? Are the Gospel stories meant to inspire us to be like Jesus. On one level, certainly, we can find inspiration in the stories of Jesus’ preaching and miracles. However, if we think that the goal of our Christian life is merely to imitate Jesus, we will never get to Heaven.

For you to be a saint means to live your life in Christ, and to allow Christ to live His life within yours. This is something mystical, and so it’s difficult to describe in language. Nonetheless, it’s part and parcel of being a Christian. It’s not just for cloistered monks and nuns.

At the moment of your baptism, three changes happened to you. But focus on just two of them. On the one hand, you were adopted by God the Father, and became His child. On the other hand, you became one member of the Mystical Body of Christ. These two events—becoming a child of God, and becoming a member of Christ’s Body—are part and parcel of each other.

In other words, it’s not so much that Jesus is our “older brother” spiritually, whose relationship with the Father we admire and then try to imitate. Rather, it’s as members of Christ’s own Mystical Body that you and I share in the sonship of Jesus.