Theological Foundations new file

79 Life in Christ the learned and the simple, the rich and the poor. Our model is the Christ who teaches and refutes the attacks of the Pharisees, who looks for the lost sheep, Christ persecuted and suffering. 76 According to Father Renovator, one simple way of imitating Christ is a willing acceptance of any works and duties entrusted to us by the Congregation. A religious will not consider any useful and honest occu- pation to be unworthy of him, bearing in mind the example of Jesus Christ, who worked with His own hands, and of so many saints who gladly accepted the humblest tasks. 77 For just as Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ did not come into the world to do His own will but His Father’s, so also the religious should remember that they did not join the congregation to fulfill their own will but the will of the Heavenly Father. 78 Christ should be their Way, Truth and Life in everything. They are to reflect upon His hidden and private life as well as upon His pub- lic and apostolic life. He is the model of prayer, work, penance and sac- rifice. It is not sufficient that they acquire one or another of His virtues, they must try to know Him better and better, to be imbued with His Spirit, to conform their will to His will, their whole life to His life, in order to become a living image of Christ. 79 Father Matulaitis-Matulewicz also emphasizes the fact that every Christian is obliged to imitate Christ in his life. This duty ensues from the very name, i.e., “a Christian,” which suggests that Christ is our model of life. The perfection and salvation of a Christian depend on whether he imitates his Master. Jesus said: “If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me” (Mt 16, 24). A decision to follow Christ, who is the Truth and the Light of the World, results in great spiritual benefits. It makes man’s every action holy as he becomes united with Christ through the gift of grace, as he becomes filled with His spirit and acts out of the same motives as Christ did. The union with the Divine Master makes man’s efforts extremely fruitful for Jesus assured us that if someone abides in Him, he “bears much fruit” (Jn 15, 5). 80 If someone wants to imitate Christ, he must first get to know Him, for