Theological Foundations new file

74 Theological Foundations in self-denial. Seek, therefore, the opportunities to overcome your own opinion because you have sacrificed your will for the sake of hell many times so far. Make at least one holy, albeit belated, sacrifice to heaven — the sacrifice of your entire will.” 60 Jesus Christ Himself encouraged His disciples to imitate Him: “He who follows Me will not walk in darkness” (Jn 8, 12). The followers of Jesus become the sons of light and are able to conduct themselves the way their Master did, i.e. to live a life free from sin (cf. 1 Jn 3, 6). This, after all, is a condition of persevering in Christ, which is a prin- cipal duty of a Christian. 61 In their daily lives, the confreres are to deny themselves and imitate Christ by separating themselves from the mundane and practicing patience, humility, modesty, recollection, penance, prayer and religious observance. 62 The spirit of poverty is a particular expression of sacrifice after the example of Christ. He, the King of Heaven, did not even have a roof over His head (cf. Mt 8, 20; Lk 9, 58) and when He was thirsty, He was not ashamed to ask for water (cf. Jn 4, 7). Therefore, the religious should rejoice in their poverty and in this way become true disciples and fol- lowers of Christ. 63 The Founder of the Marians pays a lot of attention to the matter of imitating Christ’s obedience. The Marians have the motive and the model of obedience in the Savior who “humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross” (Phil 2, 8). 64 The author emphasizes the fact that Christ was not guided by His own judgment, but He had the Spirit who guided Him and thus He faithfully fulfilled the will of the Eternal Father. 65 Similarly, those who have made a pledge to imitate Him, may not reign with Christ if they do not want to be obe- dient to Him. He was obedient not only to His Heavenly Father but also to His adoptive father on earth: “He ... was obedient to them” (Lk 2, 51). “As you watch Him being obedient to the will of His parents, Christ is teaching you now the virtue of heavenly obedience, using not a multi- tude of words but the teaching summarized in examples.”