Called to be the Living and Perfect Image of Christ Crucified
My God, I am unworthy to be a living and perfect image of your divine crucified Son, but grant it to me through your mercy and merits of Jesus and Mary. (OOCC, X, p. 205; STA, 318)
From his birth to his death, the life of Jesus involved varying trials, temptations and tribulations, which he joyfully endured in order to accomplish his Father’s plan of salvation for humankind. Living a life of the cross in imitation of Jesus is, in fact, the vocation of every Christian. According to St. Vincent Pallotti, every Christian is called to be the “living” and “perfect” image of the crucified Lord Jesus. The call to be a Christian, therefore, first implies that a person is expected to be “the living image of the crucified Jesus.” The phrase “living image of the crucified Jesus,” when applied to a Christian means that he, in the context of his own life, is obliged to live out Jesus’ life of the cross. In other words, it implies that a Christian must continue to spend himself generously for others, just as Jesus gave himself up on the cross for the world’s salvation. Second, a Christian is called to be “the perfect image of the crucified Jesus.” It means that a person is expected to live the cross in perfect imitation of Jesus’ life of the cross. In other words, the manner of living out one’s cross is as perfect as the manner in which Jesus lived out his cross. Spending his life as the “living” and “perfect” image of the crucified Jesus, St. Vincent sanctified his life and that of others.
Do I recognize that living the life of the cross in imitation of Christ crucified is my vocation as a Christian? Do I live as the living and perfect image of the crucified Jesus? Does the living of this image help me to sanctify my life and that of others?
May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world … for I bear the marks of Jesus on my body. (Gal. 6: 14, 17)