Christ our Example

Jesus Christ is going to send a powerful message through what he has done: he will sum up both what he did when he came to earth, and what we (the Church) must do. We all know that the message of Jesus Christ is a message of Love, and his Doctrine is to love one another as he himself loved us; it is even written that charity (Divine and brotherly Love) is the fulfillment of the law of Christ and that there is no greater Love than to lay down one's life for one's friends. And the Word of God also teaches us that as Christ gave his life for us, we too must give our lives for the brothers (sisters) (John 13: 34-35) (John 15: 12-13) (Romans 13) : 10) (Galatians 5:14) (1 John 3:16) (Romans 5: 8):

"Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hand, that he had come from God, and that he was going to God, rose up from the table, took off his clothes, and took a towel, which he Then he put water in a basin, and began to wash the feet of his disciples, and to wipe them with the cloth with which he was girded. Then he came to Simon Peter, but Peter said unto him, Thou, Lord, you wash my feet. Jesus answered and said to him, You do not understand now what I am doing, but you will know it in the future. Peter said to him, You will never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I will not wash you, you shall not have any part with me. Simon Peter said to him, Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head. Jesus said to him, He who is bathed needs nothing but wash your feet in order to be completely clean; now you are clean, but not all of you. For he knew who it was that would betray him; therefore he said, You are not all clean. so that he had washed their feet, he put on his clothes again ... "(John 13: 3-12)

In this passage there is a lot to say as in all, but I must concentrate on the subject. Jesus teaches us what he did when he came into the world. He stripped himself of his identity (garment) of God (Master), to become Son of God (servant), and he did so to show us an Example so that we do the same:

"and having sat down again to table, he said to them: Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord; and you say well, for thus I AM. If therefore I, who am the Lord and Teacher, I have washed your feet, you must also wash each other's feet; for I have set an example for you, that you may do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you : The slave is not greater than his master, nor the apostle greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, you are blessed, provided that you practice them. " (John 13: 12-17)

This passage teaches us that Almighty God humbled himself, demeaned himself by changing his clothing to become a servant, and all this not only so that through his death and resurrection we could receive his Spirit by means of faith, but also to show us an Example so that by means of the Spirit that we have received from him we do as he did, that is to say: strip ourselves of our identity in order to be able to put on the necessary clothing for the service and to be girded with the belt of Truth to sanctify the Church.

"And you husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church, and gave himself up for her, in order to sanctify her by purifying her and by washing her with the water bath of the word; so to make this glorious Church appear before him, without spot or wrinkle or anything like it, but holy and blameless. " (Ephesians 5: 25-27)

Jesus Christ was therefore stripped of his Divinity, of his Identity of God and Father, and made himself a servant and son, in order to show us the perfect example so that we could be saved by doing the same thing by faith and by faith. Power of his Spirit.

"Let there be therefore in you the feelings which were in Jesus Christ, who being in the form of God, did not regard his equality with God as a usurpation. Yet he emptied himself of himself, having took the form of a slave, made in the likeness of men; and, being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself, making himself obedient unto death, even unto the death of the cross." (Philippians 2: 5-8)

The only way we can put on the garment of a servant, of the Son of God (Christ), is to take off the old garment (the old man), and we now know that God is not asking us to do something that He does not. He himself has not done, but that God has stripped himself of his identity in order to be able to save us out of charity, and he asks us to do the same for the salvation of the Church.

If the grain of wheat which fell in the earth does not die, it does not bear fruit, but if it dies it bears much fruit: this thought also concerns both Christ who had to die to bear its fruit, and we ourselves, who must crucify the old man in order to put on the new man who is according to God (John 12:24):

"But you, this is not how you have learned of Christ, if however you have heard him and been instructed by him, according to the truth which is in Jesus: to strip yourselves as regards your previous conduct. , of the old man corrupted by deceptive desires, to let you be renewed by the Spirit in your minds, and to put on the new man, created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. " (Ephesians 4: 20-24)
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