Saturday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, for the slave that he become like his master. This piece of wisdom from today’s Gospel is worth taking to heart for all who seek to be true disciples of Jesus Christ. Our whole aim is to become more and more like our Teacher and Master, to offer ourselves wholly in love as he did, for the sake of those we love and ultimately for the sake of the whole world. This process of transformation after the pattern of Christ, which never ends but always continues deeper and deeper, is what we call “Christification”—or as the Eastern church calls it, deification.
As Jesus warns us in today’s Gospel, however, our Christification necessarily entails a share in the Cross, in persecution and trials suffered for the sake of love. Not that we need to seek them out! They will come, in one manner or another. Yet the Lord promises to watch over and care for us even then, even in the midst of suffering.
Today, let us renew our desire to be transformed in the likeness of Christ, offering ourselves in love and trusting that the Lord will accompany and protect us even in the midst of trials and persecutions.