Theological Foundations new file

72 Theological Foundations Christ’s footsteps and to imitate His life faithfully. He gives Jesus as an example even as “He was twelve years old” (Lk 2, 42) and went to Jerusalem with His parents, thus setting an example of piety. Father Stanislaus orders his confreres to keep recalling their own conduct as children so that they might compare it to Jesus’ childhood. After all, their childhood had already been a time when they offended God, fell into evil and commited abuses. How different was Jesus’ life in this period! At the age of twelve He gave an example of amazing piety. Meanwhile, a person who became a religious might have indulged in various impro- prieties and wickedness in his youth, and even now, while he remains in the house of God, he often lives a frigid spiritual life. And yet, one who imitates Jesus by wearing his religious attire, should also imitate Him by his conduct. The fact of simply being a religious does not save anyone, living a religious life does. It is not enough to be a religious only by name, it is necessary to be one in reality. 55 In order to focus his readers’ attention on the person of Jesus and impel them to imitate the Savior, Father Papczynski recalls an episode from the Gospel which speaks about the messengers sent by John the Baptist: “Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples ...” (Mt 11, 2). Jesus’ precursor wanted his disciples to have no doubts whom to follow after his death. Therefore he sent them, so that they would learn from Christ Himself who He really is, so that they would become familiar with His person, His teaching, His habits and then follow Him. 56 In a similar manner, Father Stanislaus puts Christ before his disciples’ eyes, so that they can imitate Him. He strictly demands that they decide whom they want to follow. God wants them to follow the Only One — Christ. 57 In order to make sure that they never forget about this, he ordered in the rule of life that they gather together each Sunday to participate in a spiritual conference which will remind them of the need to imitate Christ. 58 In order to help them to keep their Crucified Lord before their eyes at all times, he wrote meditations on Christ’s Passion for each day of the week, in which he leads them in following their tortured Savior through the particular events of the