A Christ-centered life

By Dr. Bernardo Villegas in Manila Bulletin


Every year, Holy Week gives an opportunity to Christians to focus their attention on Jesus Christ as the Redeemer of the world. Throughout all the days of this culmination of the Lenten Season, we consider how Jesus, true God and true Man, was obedient unto death, even unto the death of the Cross. Jesus is without doubt the very center of our attention as we move from Palm Sunday to the glorious day of the Resurrection.

It would be a pity, though, if we limit our Christ-centeredness to Holy Week. For a Christian, every day should be an opportunity to put Christ at the center of all our activities. I would like to cite here the example of St. Josemaria Escriva, Founder of Opus Dei. His whole being was centered on the Person of Jesus Christ. None other than Pope Benedict XVI, when he was still known as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, expounded on the Christ-centeredness of this modern saint, who was canonized by Pope John Paul II on October 6, 2002.

In an address to theologians and other scholars reflecting on the studies and teachings of St. Josemaria, then Cardinal Ratzinger highlighted the Christ-centeredness of St. Josemaria: "...there is something which one immediately notices when one comes in contact with the life of Monsignor Escriva de Balaguer or with his writings — a very vivid sense of the presence of Christ. 'Stir up that fire of faith. Christ is not a figure that has passed. He is not a memory that is lost in history. He lives! 'Jesus Christ is the same today as He was yesterday and as He will be forever,' he writes in The Way. This Christ who is alive is also a Christ who is near, a Christ in whom the power and majesty of God make themselves present through ordinary, simple, human things."

Pope Benedict XVI spoke of St. Josemaria as having a marked and special type of Christ-centeredness, in which contemplation of Jesus' life on earth and contemplation of His living presence in the Eucharist lead one to discover God and from God they throw light onto the circumstances of our everyday life. Then he quotes from one of the best-selling books of St. Josemaria, Christ Is Passing By: "The fact that Jesus grew up and lived just like us shows that human existence and all the ordinary activity of men have a divine meaning. No matter how much we may have reflected on this, we should always be surprised when we think of the 30 years of obscurity which made up the greater part of Jesus' life among men. He lived in obscurity, but, for us, that period is full of light. It illuminates our days and fills them with meaning, for we are ordinary Christians who lead an ordinary life, just like millions of other people all over the world."

Only by centering one's life on the Person of Christ can each one of us respond to the universal calling to holiness. Pope Benedict XVI specifies two things that we can learn from reflections on the life of Jesus, from the deep mystery of the fact that God not only became man but also took on the human condition, making Himself the same as us, except for sin. The first one relates to the very charisma that God gave to Opus Dei: "First of all is the universal call to holiness, to whose proclamation St. Josemaria made such a contribution, as John Paul II recalled in his homily during the beatification Mass. But also, to give body to this call, there is the recognition that holiness is reached under the influence of the Holy Spirit, through ordinary life. Holiness consists in this — living our daily life with our sights fixed on God; shaping all our actions to accord with the Gospel and the spirit of Faith."

Let us resolve then to make full use of the impetus that Holy Week has given us to continue to focus on the Person of Christ for the rest of the year and the rest of our lives. The principal way we can get close to Christ is to live a life of prayer, sacrifice, and apostolic action. The highest form of prayer is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass which is a representation of the Sacrifice on Calvary performed in an unbloody manner. Happy Easter to all my readers.