Get to know who Christ truly is

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

WITH all the antagonistic questionings Christ received from some of the leading Jews, he instead offered some clarification about who really was. “How do the scribes claim that the Christ is the son of David?” he asked those around him. (Mk 12,35)

And so, he himself also provided the answer. “David himself, inspired by the Holy Spirit, said: The Lord said to my lord, ‘Sit at my right hand until I place your enemies under your feet.’ David himself calls him ‘Lord’; so how is he his son?” (Mk 12,36-37)

The problem with these leading Jews was that they had a narrow if not wrong understanding of the identity of Christ. They could not believe that Christ is first of all God before he also became man. And that his mission is not only something earthly and temporal—the liberation of the Jewish people from bondage—but is something spiritual and supernatural in keeping with the true dignity of man as children of God.

It is important that we too have a good and correct understanding of who Christ truly is and of the real mission he is carrying out with us. Quite often, even if we already are Christian believers, we still have wrong notions and attitudes toward Christ. We expect Christ to work under our own terms instead of the other way around.

It’s good that from time to time we ask ourselves the question of who is Christ to us. I think that’s a very legitimate question to ask ourselves daily. If Christ is truly alive and is actively intervening in our lives, we should ask ourselves if we manage to see him and deal with him today and always. We know all too well that very often we are good in words only, but not in deeds, in theory but not in practice. We need to close the gap.

Let’s remember that Christ himself said: “I am always with you until the end of time.” (Mt 28,20) If we have faith, these words should never be considered as mere bluff. They are true and operative. We have to learn to conform ourselves to that reality and to behave accordingly.

Christ should not just be a Christ of faith or a Christ of history, as some theologians have described him. The Christ of faith and the Christ of history is one and the same person, and he continues not only to be with us but also to work with us, showing us the way how to live, how to work, how to decide, how to choose, etc.

Christ is actually leading us the way in our life so that we can reach our final destination. He is never indifferent to us, even if we are indifferent to him. He will always find a way to be with us always and somehow lead us in his own mysterious ways.

But we need to be more aware of his presence and more active in cooperating with his will and ways. For this, we have to learn to discipline ourselves to be able to see Christ everyday. He is actually in all things and in all situations.

Our faith in him should be such that we can contemplate him always. He has to enter in our life not only intellectually and spiritually, but also emotionally and physically. We have to wean ourselves from that stage where we think that we are just living on our own. We are living with Christ, and in fact, with everybody else.

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com