George Matulaitis Journal

69 other saints be our models. Give us, Lord, an apostolic spirit, true zeal which embraces all souls! What kind of people do we need, then; what sort of people does our vocation demand? People who are dead to the world and the world to them 1 —people who have renounced everything and dedicated themselves to God alone; people who have stripped away and divested themselves of the skin of our corrupt nature and have put on Christ, 2 His grace and His Spirit; people who are well aware that Christ died for all so that all “should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and was raised to life for them” (2 Cor 5:15). “We do nothing that people might object to, so as not to bring discredit on our function as God’s servants. Instead, we prove we are servants of God by great fortitude in times of suffering; in times of hardship and distress; when we are flogged, or sent to prison, or mobbed; laboring, sleepless, starving. We prove we are God’s servants by our purity, knowledge, patience, and kindness; by a spirit of holiness, by a love free from affectation; by the word of truth and by the power of God; by being armed with the weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left, prepared for honor or disgrace, for blame or praise; taken for impostors, while we are genuine; obscure yet famous; said to be dying, and here we are alive; rumored to be executed before we are sentenced; thought most miserable, and yet we are always rejoicing; taken for paupers, though we make others rich; for people having nothing, though we have everything” (2 Cor 6:3-10). Let us make sure that we walk along this road shown us by St. Paul, taking long strides to reach our heavenly home more quickly and drawing others to walk along the same path, helping them in whatever way we can, always mindful of the greater glory of God. If only we could, we would take the whole world up to heaven with us! We would place it at the feet of our Lord as a gift for Him. O Lord, help us to become such people, always on fire with holy zeal. 1 Cf., Gal 6:14 — “… the world is crucified to me, and I to the world.” 2 Here and elsewhere this image of putting on a new skin, as it were, of putting on Christ in place of our corrupt nature echoes the Pauline image of Gal 3:27: “baptized in Christ, you have all clothed yourselves in Christ” (also Rm 13:14, Col 3:10, Eph 4:24).