Notes for16 May 2024

Paul speaks very often in his messages of what is the Tradition. And, probably, one of the best, of the widest and of the most exact of its definitions is his call "imitate me". It is interesting to mark that in certain translations in other languages, we meet the second part of this sentence (" I urge you to imitate me, as I imitate Christ"), being, as seen, a late insertion, such as we sometimes meet in the texts of the New Testament. And we can consider this insertion of completely convenient, considering the sense and the character of Paul's ministry, which really made of the imitation of Christ his basis.

In fact, without such an imitation, one can’t speak about any Tradition: because Christianity is not a religion, the prescriptions of which it is necessary to carry out, but a life in the Kingdom, and the first example of which was the life of the Savior Himself. And every Christian is called to live as Christ, a full life of the Kingdom. Of course, it is not at all about a certain external imitation: in life in general and in the spiritual life, especially, there is nothing worse and more horrible than imitation, the imitation of the life of others. And it is not only about the life of the Savior, but also about the life of any of the righteous Christians or about the fathers of the Church: because any life is unique, and the life path of each is exceptional. But the life in the Kingdom is impossible for anyone without living and also perfect unique relations in every case with Christ, who, in all its originality, they all have between themselves something common.

Here is this common in the relationships of each of the Christians with Christ forms the core of the Christian Tradition, as the experience of life in the Kingdom. But apart of the relationships with Christ, such life still supposes the relationships with the neighbor. And the relationships are even more diverse, than the relationships with Christ. Every Christian lives his life in the Kingdom and in the Church, quite as Paul lived himself. And, of course, when it comes to men, the reasons for copying, for imitating the life of others are even less, than in the case of the Savior. But here is, to make the center of life the testimony about Christ and the Kingdom was really the task of every Christian.

The concrete depends on circumstances, among which each has of course his in life, in something typical, in something unique. And one does not need here to imitate silly the life of others, but to understand it from the point of view of the laws of the Kingdom, according to which lives every Christian righteous. And having understood, use the experience of the predecessors in his personal life in order not to repeat the errors of others and not invent the bicycle. Then every Christian will become a real witness of the Kingdom, and the Church as a whole will be what it should be: the body of Christ.