WHAT IS THE RULE OF LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN

The rule of life of a Christian is to follow the rule of life taught by Jesus Christ, that is to hate sin and to love God. We must hate sin above all other evils, so as to be resolved never to commit a willful sin, for the love or fear of anything, whatsoever. At the same time we must love God above all things and with our whole heart. As you know God is a spirit and it is humanly difficult to love somebody, who is a spirit. So we must learn how to love God by begging of God to teach us to love Him. “O my God, teach me to love you�. The love of God will lead us often to think how good God is, often to speak to Him in our hearts and always to seek to please Him. It is probably more easy to love Jesus Christ the Word made flesh and through Him the Holy Trinity one God. Those who see the Son of God can also see the Father and so too the Holy Spirit the love of the Father and the Son personified. Jesus Christ also commands us to love one another – that is all persons without exception – for his sake. We are also bound to love our enemies not only by forgiving them from our hearts, but also by wishing them well, and praying for them. Jesus Christ has given us another great rule in these words “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me’ (Luke 9:23). We are to deny ourselves by giving up our own will and by going against our own humours, inclinations and passions. We are bound to deny ourselves, because our natural inclinations are prone to evil from our very childhood and if not corrected by self denial, they will certainly carry us to hell. Moreover, we are to take up our cross daily by submitting ourselves with patience to the labours and sufferings of this short life of ours and by bearing them willingly for the love of God. Always receive our daily cross from the hands of our Lord. We are to follow our Blessed Lord by walking in His foot steps and imitating His virtues, especially the principal virtues of meekness, humility and obedience. Apart from this, Christian life is a spiritual warfare. The enemies which we must fight against all the days of our life are the devil, the world and the flesh. Satan and all his wicked angels are included, when we say devil, who are ever seeking to draw us into sin, that we may be dammed with them. World means the false maxims of the world and the society of those who love the vanities, riches and pleasures of this world better than God. Flesh means corrupt inclination, passions and bodily pleasures. The five senses of body, memory, thoughts and imagination are the gateway of the body (flesh) for the entrance of good and evil. Devil uses flesh and world through suggestion, temptation and inordinate stimulation of passions and pleasures to lead us to sin. “Spiritual Life� as the name connotes is the “life of the spirit� indwelling in a person. Spiritual life is infact a spiritual warfare, that is, ongoing fight between good and evil spirits, in relevance to a person’s life on this earth. Most of the people are not aware of this spiritual warfare. Knowingly or unknowingly they fall in line with one of these forces, and most of the time, with Diabolic forces. A person living on this earth has to join either of these forces and lead a Holy Spiritual Life or a Diabolic Spiritual Life. As our Lord says “No servant can be slave of two masters; he will hate one and love the other….� (Luke 16 – 13) We must fight with these diabolic forces which utilizes our flesh and the world around us to lead us to sin, by leading a detached life and bringing in union with God through obeying the Ten Commandments, the Laws of the Church, leading a life based on the Word of God, by receiving the Grace of God through Sacraments, Complying with the Teaching and the Tradition of the Church and by receiving the super natural help of Holy Mary and Saints. This war can be won by keeping our mind, heart and spirit pure, through mortification of senses, keeping the virtue chastity of mind, body and spirit and being poor in our souls. We should deny ourselves by giving up our own will and by going against our humours, inclinations and passions. Most of all, do not depend on ourselves in this spiritual warfare, but on God only. Say to yourself “I can do all things in Him who strengthen me�. (Philip 4:13)