The Center for contemplative practice
A Lay Cistercian Looks at Spiritual Reality
THE CHRIST IMPERATIVES
Here are some of the commands that Jesus gave to us in order to help us to convert our lives from the World to the Spirit.
- Seeking perfection? LISTEN TO ME, FOR I AM MEEK AND HUMBLE OF HEART. Matthew 11:28-30
- Thirsty? Drink of the living waters! John 7:37.
- Hungry? Eat the food that gives eternal life! John 6:33-38.
- Bewildered? Believe in the Master! John 3:11-21.
- Without hope? Be not afraid! John 13:33-35.
- Lost? Find the way. John 14:6-7.
- Tired because of the pain? Be renewed! John 15:1-7.
- Afraid? Find peace! John 27-28.
- Afraid to believe? Believe! John 11:25-27.
- Without a family? Listen! John 10:7-18.
- In darkness? Walk in the light! John 8:12.
- Spiritually depressed? Be healed! John 5:24
Welcome, good and faithful servant, into the Kingdom, prepared for you before the world began.
Being a faithful follower of the Master is the easiest thing to talk about but the most difficult thing to do. As a Lay Cistercian, trying to convert my life daily to be more like Christ and less like me, I find these imperatives like beacons on the stormy waters of living in a world influenced by Original Sin. The reason spirituality is work is that we live in a foreign land, one whose default in not a conveyor belt to get to Heaven. Heaven is not automatic. If it was, why be spiritual at all, just sit back and sin bravely. It is Christ who has shown us the way, given us love as the gold standard, shown us how to love because he has loved us first, by his passion, death and resurrection. It is this faith which conquers the World, it is this faith, that of the Universal Church (those who have died and are in the peace of Christ, those who live on earth and struggle with conversion of life, and those purifying themselves). Christ wanted us to live out our moving from self to God in the midst of the community of Faith. This community has the Mystery of Faith as its core. These imperatives help us as a community as we approach the Sacred.
The core imperative is: love one another as I have loved you. I pray that I am what I hope to become in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
Praise to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and forever. The God who is, who was, and who is to come at the end of the ages. Amen and Amen. –Cistercian doxology
The Center for contemplative practice 