“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations; baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you. And look, I am with you always; yes, to the end of time” (Matthew 28:19-20).
In the above quoted passage from St. Matthew, we have the final will and testament of our Lord, and herein is contained, the entire apostolic mission of the Church. We will limit ourselves to two observations.
Firstly, let us observe its universal character — all nations are called to discipleship. Here we have the “universal call to holiness” articulated in Lumen Gentium, V. The life of discipleship is for all Christians. It is sad but true that we generally think of the truly devout life as something beyond our reach or vocation. As we have all heard, or maybe said ourselves, “Well I’m not a priest or nun.” Such misconceptions are not new in the Church. St. Francis De Sales, in the sixteenth century, attempted to address this issue when he wrote:
It is an error, or rather a heresy, to wish to banish the devout life from the regiment of soldiers, the mechanic’s shop, the court of princes, or the home of married people…Wherever we may be, we can and should aspire to a perfect life” (Introduction to the Devout Life, pp.. 44-45).
The Second Vatican Council addressed the same concern:
“It is therefore quite clear that all Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of love,…”(Lumen Gentium, 40).
Becoming Disciples
The second observation is that disciples are made, not born. We become children of God through faith and baptism, but we become disciples only through nurture and training. To determine the traits of a disciple of Jesus Christ, we examine the Gospels:
- Different than an Apostle Though all apostles are disciples, not all disciples are to be apostles. In the New Testament the apostles are often referred to as the twelve disciples but the term “disciple” is also there used to refer to all believers in Christ.
- A Follower of Jesus Christ. One can be a disciple of any person one seeks to follow in a disciplined manner. There were, in New Testament times, many types of disciples, such as those of John the Baptist and Moses. Today there are disciples of the Buddha, Karl Marx and many others. But the Christian is a disciple principally of Jesus Christ. Every Catholic is called to be Christ’s disciple, to “take up their cross and follow Him.”
- A Student of Jesus Christ The Greek word for “disciple”, mathetes, conveys the idea of one who is a pupil. To be Christ’s disciple means to learn of and from Him. Jesus invites us: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:29). We learn of Him from the Scriptures; for as St. Jerome said, “Ignorance of the scriptures is ignorance of Christ.” The disciple of Jesus Christ is the one that models his life upon the teachings of his master.
- Abides in Christ’s Word “If you make my word your home you will indeed be my disciples; you will come to know the truth and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31,32). The disciple is one who “has my commandments and keeps them” (John 14:21). “Like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby” (1 Peter 2:2).
- Lives in Obedience to Christ The disciple learns “to observe all” that Jeuss has commanded. The mature disciple has learned the great rewards of obedience and, like his Lord, has learned the freedom of saying, “not my will but thy will be done.” The disciple has made Christ his Lord. This Christ-like spirit of obedience goes very much against the spirit of our age; nonetheless, it is very much at the heart of Christian discipleship.
- Renounces All In Luke, the gospel of discipleship par excellence, we read:” Great crowds accompanied Him on his way and he turned and spoke to them. ‘Anyone who comes to me without hating father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes and his own life too, cannot be my disciple. No one who does not carry his cross and come after me can be my disciple….none of you can be my disciple without giving up all that he owns’” (Luke 14). According to St. Thomas, renunciation can be either in spirit or in actuality (Summa Pt II-II Q184 Art7). Lay people can find this challenging to discern, but whatever the variables are in situation and calling at any given time, a disposition of gratitude, generosity and detachment from their wealth and possessions will be a constant.
- Seeks, for the Sake of Christ, to be the Servant of All Christ said, “The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve” (Mark 10:45). Any who would follow him are to embrace the same. The radical disciple of Christ seeks always to be a servant. At work, at home, to one’s neighbor and to the stranger. Servanthood is more than action, it is an interior disposition that seeks the lowest place, rather than the highest, that seeks the good of another rather than the good of one’s self, that engages in the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy, despite personal cost.
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