The imitation of Christ: A highly encouraged practice for everyone

Imitation plays an elementary role in the life of the Christian. This fact, already elicited from the study of scriptures and the experience of the saints, is also evident in the teachings of the magisterium of the Church, which emphasises that imitation is a call for all Christians.

A call for all Christians

 The Church encourages every category of the faithful to imitate Christ.  This is very explicit in the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium, where in the section on the universal call to holiness, states: “In order that the faithful may reach this perfection, they must use their strength accordingly as they have received it, as a gift from Christ. They must follow in his footsteps and conform themselves to his image seeking the will of the Father in all things” (Lumen Gentium n. 40).

This universal call for imitation is repeated in many official documents in relation to children, adolescents, married life, priests, religious,  bishops, the sick, and so on. Christ is also suggested as a model for the different aspects of the Christian life,  such as prayer, relationship with the Father, and love, just to name a few. Due to this essential role imitation has for the life of the Christian, the Church considers this practice as one of its primary catechetical aims (cf., John Paul II, Catechesi Tradendae, 16 Oct 1979, n. 20; Congregation for the clergy, General directory for Catechesis, 17 August 1997, LEV, Vatican City 1997, n.53).

Here are some examples from the official church documents that promote the practice of imitating Christ to different categories of people:

• Christ model for adolescents: Saint John Paul II instructs that the catechises aimed for the adolescents has to show, “Jesus Christ as a ‘Friend’, ‘Guide’ and ‘Model’, is capable of being admired but also imitated” (Catechesi Tradendae, n. 38).  

• Christ model of married life: “The Church encourages and guides the Christian family to the service of love, so that it may imitate and relive the same self-giving and sacrificial love that the Lord Jesus has for the entire human race” (Familiaris Consortio, n. 49).

• Christ model for the sick: “All the members ought to be moulded in the likeness of Him, until Christ be formed in them (cf. Galatians 4:19) For this reason we, who have been made to conform with Him, who have died with Him and risen with Him, are taken up into the mysteries of His life, until we will reign together with Him (Cf. Philippians 3:21; 2 Timothy 2:11; Ephesians 2:6; Colossians 2:12 etc.). On earth, still as pilgrims in a strange land, tracing in trial and in oppression the paths He trod, we are made one with His sufferings like the body is one with the Head, suffering with Him, that with Him we may be glorified (Cf. Romans 8:17)” (Lumen Gentium, n. 7).

• A model for priests and religious: Religious life is aimed to be a “living memorial of Jesus’ way of living and acting” (Vita Consecrata, n. 22). It “draws its origin from the doctrine and example of the Divine Master,” (Perfectae Caritatis, n. 1) and “through the prompting of the Holy Spirit, constitutes a closer imitation and an abiding re-enactment in the Church of the way of life which Jesus embraced and proposed to his disciples (cf. Matthew 4:18-22; Mark 1:16-20; Luke 5:10-11; John 15:16)” (Vita Consecrata, n. 22). Consequently, priests and religious have to “strive to become one with him [Christ], taking on his mind and his way of life” (Vita Consecrata, n. 18). They “are called to imitate and to live out his pastoral charity,” (Pastores Dabo Vobis, n. 22) his prayer, and his relationship with the Father. For all these reasons, imitation is “the primary mission of the consecrated person” (Congregation for institutes of consecrated life and societies of Apostolic life, Instruction, The service of authority and obedience, n.15).

• Model for Bishops: “Human concern leads the Bishop to imitate Jesus,” (Pastores Gregis, n. 71) especially his kenosis: “He [the bishop] will therefore strive to adopt a lifestyle which imitates the kenosis of Christ, the poor and humble servant, so that the exercise of his pastoral ministry will be a consistent reflection of Jesus, the Servant of God, and will help him to become, like Jesus, close to everyone, from the greatest to the least” (Pastores Gregis, n. 11).

The imitation of Christ facilitates the moral judgement

Another aspect of the imitation of Christ is that it facilitates the moral judgement because “Jesus is for Christians the model par excellence of perfect con­duct” (Bible and Morality, n.100). This model is a concrete and accessible ideal, since “The orientations given by Jesus have the value of true moral imperatives […].  Jesus’ moral sayings and his example establish the theological and Christological foundations of moral living and encourage the disciple to live by the values of the kingdom of God revealed by Jesus” (Bible and Morality, n.102). For this reason, the Pontifical Biblical Commission considers the imitation of Christ as “the heart of Christian morality” (Bible and Morality, n.100). It considers this practice as one of the fundamental criteria for an authentic moral Judgement.

“Whenever a judgement is required on the Christian morality of any action the immediate questions to be asked are how far this practice is [1] compatible with the biblical vision of the human being, and [2] to what extent it is inspired by the example of Jesus” (Bible and Morality, n.103).

Therefore, through the practice of imitation, the Christian has an opportunity to educate one’s mind and heart with the example of Jesus as narrated in the Gospels.

Through imitation, Christ could be offered as a model for all humanity

Christ could also be presented as a model for all humanity. The Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes while explaining that the Christian is “conformed to the likeness of that Son Who is the firstborn of many brothers”, also states that: “All this holds true not only for Christians but for all people of goodwill in whose hearts grace works in an unseen way. For, since Christ died for all, and since the ultimate vocation of humanity is, in fact, one and divine, we ought to believe that the Holy Spirit in a manner known only to God offers every person the possibility of being associated with this paschal mystery” (Gaudium et Spes, n. 22).