“Put on the Lord Jesus Christ…”

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

IF we believe that Christ is the pattern of our humanity, the savior of our damaged humanity, the foundation of our life and of our identity, the fullness and perfection of our humanity, then we should give serious attention to this piece of advice from St. Paul.

“Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfil its lusts,” St. Paul said in his Letter to the Romans. (13,14) We have to realize that only when we are vitally identified with Christ can we truly live out our dignity as children of God, created in his image and likeness, meant to share in the very life of God.

We know that St. Paul was the epitome of a person who suffered very sharply the conflict between the law of the spirit and the law of the flesh. “I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members,” he admitted once. (Rom 7,23)

In another instance, he made this reflection when he considered the great privilege given to him by God: “In order to keep from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’” (2 Cor 12,7-9)

We know that what St. Paul experienced, we all do as well. We cannot deny that. And when we happen to be more privileged, the stronger would be the temptations to spoil us. That is something that we have to expect if we only have a little of common sense.

We have to realize that no matter how saintly we appear to be, the flesh and the other enemies of our soul—the world that is alienated from God and the devil himself—will always conspire to bring us down to sin. We have to be ready for this challenge.

And like St. Paul, we should feel assured that Christ will take care of us, if only we be with him. So, that advice of his to put on the Lord Jesus Christ is truly something that we have to take up seriously. We have to find ways of how to apply that piece of advice on us.

One suggestion could be that everytime we get up in the morning, as we prepare ourselves for the day, taking a shower and then putting on our clothes, we should remember these words of St. Paul to put on the Lord Jesus Christ.

We should think and feel that we are not anymore in our own naked selves, relying only on our own powers that can only go so far. We are now with Christ. In fact, we can say, “I am now Christ.” We have to realize that without Christ, the sure thing to happen is to fall into sin.

Of course, the consequence of that assertion is that we should enter into an intimate relation with Christ, knowing and loving him to such an extent that even in our own consciousness and self-awareness, Christ would be at the core and center.

We should make Christ alive in us, constantly meditating on his life and teaching that give us everything that we need to know about him and about ourselves, and receiving him sacramentally in the Holy Eucharist and the other sacraments.

That way it would be Christ more than us simply who would handle the different situations of our life that can include our weakness, temptations, sin, etc. This, of course, is not a case of baseless presumption, since Christ himself wants us to be with him. “Remember that I am always with you until the end of time,” he told his disciples that should include us if we have faith in him. (Mt 28,20)

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com