{"id":31295,"date":"2017-09-18T16:27:53","date_gmt":"2017-09-18T20:27:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/?p=31295"},"modified":"2017-09-18T16:50:48","modified_gmt":"2017-09-18T20:50:48","slug":"participating-in-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/participating-in-jesus\/","title":{"rendered":"Participating in Jesus","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Detail from the Creation of Adam,\u00a0<\/em>Michelangelo,\u00a0c. 1508\u20131512<\/span><\/p>\n

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ONCE\u00a0<\/strong>one understands the Cross<\/a>\u2014that we are not mere observers but active participants in the salvation of the world\u2014it changes everything<\/em>. Because now, by uniting the whole of your activity to Jesus, you yourself become a “living sacrifice” who is “hidden” in Christ. You become a real<\/em> instrument of grace through the merits of Christ’s Cross and a participant in His divine “office” through His Resurrection.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Col 3:3)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

All this is another way of saying that you are now a part of Christ, a literal member of His mystical body through Baptism, and not just a mere “instrument” like a pipeline or tool. Rather, dear Christian, this is what happens when the priest anoints your brow with the chrism oil:<\/p>\n

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…the faithful, who by Baptism are incorporated into Christ and integrated into the People of God, are made sharers in their particular way in the priestly, prophetic, and kingly office of Christ, and have their own part to play in the mission of the whole Christian people in the Church and in the World.<\/strong> <\/span>\u2014Catechism of the Catholic Church,\u00a0<\/em>n. 897<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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THE KINGLY OFFICE<\/p>\n

Through Baptism, God has “nailed” your sin and old nature to the wood of the Cross, and infused you with the Holy Trinity, thus inaugurating the resurrection of your “true self.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

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We who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death… If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. (Rom 6:3, 8)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is all to say that Baptism makes you capable of loving as God loves, and living as He lives. But this demands the ongoing renunciation of sin and the “old self.” And that is how you participate in the\u00a0kingly\u00a0<\/em>office of Jesus: by becoming, with the help of the Holy Spirit, a “sovereign” over your body and its passions.<\/p>\n

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By virtue of their kingly mission, lay people have the power to uproot the rule of sin within themselves and in the world, by their self-denial and holiness of life…\u00a0What, indeed, is as royal for a soul as to govern the body in obedience to God? <\/span><\/strong>\u2014CCC, <\/em>n. 786<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This obedience to God means also subjecting yourself, as Christ did, to becoming the servant<\/em> of others. ‘For the Christian, “to reign is to serve him.”‘ [1]<\/sup><\/a>CCC,\u00a0<\/em>n. 786<\/span><\/span>