FAITHFUL FOLLOWER

HERE'S WHAT being a follower of Jesus Christ does not mean: It does not mean your following a celebrity gospelizer who proves his prosperity mantra by his own lavish life-style and flashy showmanship. It does not mean crowd psychotherapy or buying celebrity products.

IT DOES not mean that people other than yourself are obliged to live a moral and ethical life. It does not mean cohabitation, multiple marriages, adultery, abortion, dumping human remains on top of dirt or water, television glamour, absolving your own sins, and no-showing on the Lord’s Day.

SO WHAT does being a faithful follower of Jesus Christ really mean? For starters, it means that a Church's holy pastor first will lead his people to Christ so that Christ can lead them all to the Father. In all other things, it means taking the last place.  It means proving one's love by doing the Lord's own works of mercy.

IT MEANS your living all TEN Commandments consciously and enthusiastically. It means that you remain celibate until you exchange your marriage vows at the Church's altar for better and for worse, for richer for for pooer, in sickness and in health until death do you part. It means that you would rather perish than betray Christ by apostasy or your spouse by adultery.

IT MEANS that you follow the example of Joseph of Arimethea and Mary Magdalene who helped Mary of Nazareth bury her son the Lord Jesus Christ, a criminal. It means you will reverence the bodies of all persons who have died. For the sake of the deceased entrusted to your custody, you will provide him or her a proper religious funeral service in the Church and burial in consecrated ground.

IT MEANS your being humane, that you respect the lives and dignity of all human beings to live graced lives from the unborn to the natural end of life. It means your being reconciled with God and neighbor at all times and accepting divine mercy as the indispensable condition for your worship in the Church and your Christian life in the world.

BEING A faithful follower of Jesus Christ means that your food is doing the will of the Father and accomplishing his work. This means then, that a faithful follower who loves Christ will do these things and more:

FEED THE hungry. Give a cup of cold water to the thirsty. Shelter the homeless. Clothe the naked. Visit the sick. Visit the imprisoned. Bury the dead reverently in consecrated ground.

MORE? YES, there is more. You will:

CORRECT THE sinner. Instruct those who are ignorant of Christ. Counsel those whose faith is weak. Comfort the sorrowing. Bear wrongs patiently. Forgive all injuries. Pray for the living and the dead.

GO OUT into the world to do these things and live a holy way of life. Take up your own cross and follow the Lord Jesus who carried his. Be worthy of him. Be worthy of humanity.