Spirituality of the Religious Life According to St. Stanislaus Papczyński 136 from the New Testament describing both Christ’s call to follow Him, as well as the positive or negative response of the called, it can be assumed that the Marian Founder understood imitation as a journey. To express the theological content of the idea of following Christ, Papczyński usually used the word sequere or – sometimes – imitare. If, however, in the analyzed works, the verb imitare may relate to the “imitation” of the Saints, especially the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, the word sequere is reserved to signify the “following” of Christ.65 It usually appears in the same sense in Inspectio cordis, when Papczyński discusses evangelical episodes speaking of the Apostles’ following of Christ and draws conclusions for his readers’ benefit. The use of the same words that the Gospels use to describe “striving after Christ” (Christi premere vestigia), gives this idea a certain dynamism and enlivens it, also making the following of Christ – sequela Christi, timeless. He shows the same relationship between the pupil and his Master as the one described on the pages of the New Testament and he indicates that imitating Christ means striving after Him just as the Apostles did, as he wrote in the commentaries. Papczyński frequently incorporates encouragement of a moral character in these matters, thus wishing to indicate the need for the inner transformation of a religious. On such occasions, he contrasts positive and negative attitudes and thus defines indirectly his own manner of understanding the idea of the sequela Christi and what the signs of the lack of its implementation are.66 65 The only exception, is Papczyński’s use of the word sequere to speak about imitating the Saints in Inspectio cordis, in the meditation dedicated to St. Stanislaus, Bishop andMartyr. Papczyński encourages us there “to follow” the Martyr, IC, Feast of the Transfer of the Body of St. Stanislaus, Bishop and Martyr (crit. ed. p. 263). 66 One of the characteristic passages is themeditation on the calling of Matthew: “He said to him: ‘Follow me’ (Mt 9:9). Consider that the evidence of a true conversion is the true imitation of Christ the Lord. Judas Iscariot was not converted, because although he followed Jesus, he was following him deceitfully; he followed him with a false disposition, thinking of his moneybags. Saint Matthew, on the contrary, was a true follower of Christ; because, getting up, he followed him. From where did he get up? From sin. To where did he follow Christ? To the virtues. Behold, a simple rule of following Christ is given to you: get up and follow him. If you have not gotten up, you will not follow him, even if it would seem that you are keeping at his heels. If you have the moneybags of your own will, of self-love, and similar things, you do not follow, you do not truly go in the footsteps of Christ, although you wear a religious habit, although you boast that you have taken the vows of obedience, chastity,
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