As your fellow worker, I beg you not to receive the grace of God in vain!
Now is the acceptable time!
Now is the day of salvation!
As we complete this sixteenth week after Pentecost, our Church, through the assigned readings, issues, on behalf of Jesus Christ, a call to all of us to become His followers – Christ’s disciples. Believe it or not, you and I have been called to discipleship in this present day. The 64 million dollar question is: What does it mean to be a disciple?
A simple, easy definition of a Christian disciple is a person who accepts and assists in the spreading of the Good News of Jesus Christ. Discipleship is the process by which people grow in the Lord Jesus Christ and are equipped by the Holy Spirit, who resides in our hearts, to overcome the pressures and trials of this present life and become more and more Christ-like. This process requires us to respond to the Holy Spirit’s prompting to examine their thoughts, words and actions and compare them with those of Jesus as we know them to be through the Gospels.
As you might guess, this description raises just as many questions as it gives answers. For example: How does a person grow in the Lord Jesus? What is the Good News that I am to share with others? What does it mean to become more Christ-like?
I’m sure that at first thought this call to discipleship might truly seem overwhelming and even scary to many who read this. I suspect that one of the immediate responses is: I don’t believe I have been called to the religious life, that is to be a nun, brother or priest!
The fact of the matter is that all who are Initiated into the Church are called to be disciples of Jesus. That is precisely what it means to be a member of the Church.
So, how can you truly become a disciple? There are steps you can take! The first step is to become serious about your relationship with God, putting it above all other things in your life. If you have already done this, then you are already on the road to becoming a disciple.
The second step is to engage in a real and serious assessment of your attitudes and behaviors and see how they match up with those that you know Jesus modeled.
The third step is to plan on ways that you can bring your attitudes and behaviors into conformity with those of Jesus. This will take resolve and the elimination of any fear of personal change!