Imitating Christ

"Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.”  John 20:21 RSV 

 The first form of witness is the very life of the missionary, of the Christian family, and of the ecclesial community, which reveal a new way of living. The missionary who, despite all his or her human limitations and defects, lives a simple life, taking Christ as the model, is a sign of God and of transcendent realities. But everyone in the Church, striving to imitate Jesus, can and must bear this kind of witness; in many cases it is the only possible way of being a missionary.

Sometimes even the apostolic desire for a ready passport into secular society and the determination to make oneself acceptable to people and particularly to the youth of today, prompts certain people to lay aside the principles which characterize our faith and to reject the sort of dignity which gives meaning and force to our determination to make contact with others and makes our teaching effective. Is it not, perhaps, true that some of the younger clergy and religious, in their laudable endeavor to come closer to the masses and to particular groups, aim at becoming like them rather than different from them? By this worthless imitation they forfeit the real value and effectiveness of their endeavors.