Then it remains for me to ask the readers for indulgence for my stupidity and prayers for my poor soul.

Bishop Ignatius.

1865.

On Following Our Lord Jesus Christ

If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me [43], said the Lord. Every Christian, by the vows pronounced at Holy Baptism, took upon himself the duty to be a servant and servant of the Lord Jesus Christ: every Christian must follow the Lord Jesus Christ.

Calling Himself the Shepherd of the sheep, the Lord said that the sheep hear the voice of this Shepherd, and the sheep follow Him, as they lead His voice [44]. The voice of Christ is His teaching; the voice of Christ is the Gospel; the procession of Christ along the path of earthly pilgrimage is an activity wholly directed according to His commandments.

In order to follow Christ, one must know His voice. Study the Gospel and you will be able to follow Christ with your life.

Whoever, having been born according to the flesh, enters into life through Holy Baptism and preserves the state provided by Baptism through living according to the Gospel, will be saved. He will enter the God-pleasing field of earthly life by spiritual birth, and will come out of this field with a blessed end, and in eternity he will find the most abundant, sweetest spiritual pasture [46].

Whoever serves Me, let him follow Me, and where I am, He will be My servant: and whosoever serves Me, My Father shall honour him. Where was the Lord when He spoke these words? Humanity, united with the Divinity, He was in the midst of men, on earth, in the vale of their exile and suffering, abiding as Divinity and where He was from the beginningless beginning. The Word is to God [48] and in God. This Word proclaimed Himself: "The Father is in Me, and I am in Him" [49]. Thither also the follower of Christ reaches: whosoever declares with his lips, heart, and deeds that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwells in Him, and He in God.

If anyone serves Me, My Father will honor him: to him who overcomes the world and sin, who follows Me in earthly life, I will grant in eternal life to sit with Me on My Throne, as I have conquered and sat down with My Father on His Throne [51].

Renunciation of the world precedes following Christ. The second has no place in the soul if the first is not first accomplished in it. Whosoever wills, said the Lord, to follow Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and come after Me. For whosoever willeth to save his soul, he shall destroy it; and whoever destroys his life for my sake and for the sake of the gospel, he will save it [52]. Whosoever cometh unto me, and hateth not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren and sisters, and also his own soul, he cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and follows Me, cannot be My disciple [53].

Many approach the Lord, few dare to follow Him. Many read the Gospel, delight, admire the loftiness and holiness of its teaching, few dare to direct their behavior according to the rules that the Gospel enshrines. The Lord declares to all those who approach Him and wish to be assimilated to Him: Whosoever cometh unto Me, and does not renounce the world and himself, he cannot be My disciple.