August 22, 2007

Letters to a Friend - #2

True discipleship does not insist on living as you feel accustomed to, nor does it insist on living according to your own will and desires. True discipleship seeks conformity to Christ, adopting and choosing His will and His desire over your own, and making them the foundation upon which you build your life.

Put simply, discipleship is the handing over or the exchange of your life, your will, and your own worldview for that of Jesus, and to give yourself entirely to Him and to the work of His kingdom.

The first thing you must do if you are to sincerely follow Christ is to die to your own will. Soon you will come to realize that “your way” is not necessarily the best and only way there is. Jesus reminds us, “He who finds his life will lose it and he who loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Mt 10:39)

Also, you will begin to realize that any attempts to discover your “self” outside of God and His will are in the end false, and become an empty idol that must, if you are to “grow up” and become authentically human, be destroyed. The happiest people in the world are not the rich and powerful and those we read about in newspapers and magazines. For the most part the happiest people in the world are completely ignored or unnoticed, because they are the people whose lives quietly proclaim the glory of God without making a fuss about themselves. This, of course, leaves the world bewildered and scratching its head in confusion.

It is true, following Christdoes involve a “death” to certain things, but it is this “death” that paves the way to true and everlasting life, if only we can be so brave as to leave ourselves behind and follow Him.

Br. Jeremiah Myriam Shryock, CFR

St. Leopold Friary, Yonkers, NY

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