Word of the Week

19th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Imitate: Mimetes (Gk.): meaning “an imitator”, or “follower”

“In all of his life Jesus presents himself as our model. He is "the perfect man" (cf. Rom.15:5, Phil.2;5) who invites us to become his disciples and follow him. In humbling himself, he has given us an example to imitate, through his prayer he draws us to pray, and by his poverty he calls us to accept freely the privation and persecutions that may come our way” (CCC, 505).

Imitate can be found 7 times in the New Testament. Exclusively in the epistles, Paul charges the faithful in Corinth to follow his example, as he is of Christ (1 Cor.11:1), and those who are of the spiritual fatherhood in Christ, which includes Timothy (and Titus) (1 Cor.4:16-17). We imitate the love of God as children of God (Eph.5:1) by accepting the word of God and faithfully responding to God’s call to be missionaries for Christ (cf. 1 Thes.2:6, 14). The virtues that are in need to imitate the love of Christ are faith and patience (Heb.6:12).

The divine charge given to the apostles to baptize in the name of the Trinity is better understood as a baptism into the name of the Trinity. The Greek rendering of in is best translated as into, suggesting that the Trinity is more than a formula, but an actual immersion into the divine life of God in the Most Holy Trinity. Just as there is a step one has to take to go into a house to claim that “I’m in”, so does the individual have to be baptized into the family of God to claim that he is in. Once the Christian is in he has all the access he needs to participate, share, and walk with, which then communicates an imitation of God. This Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time is an opportunity to examine all the ways in which we are succeeding and failing in our imitation of Christ. In what ways are we ‘following’ Christ in patience and perseverance? What are we doing to increase our faith? Are we praying, studying, practicing corporal and spiritual works of mercy? Now is the time to refocus our energies on Christ during these summer days of Ordinary Time.

“Imitation is the sincerest flattery”

--Gandhi
Primary Texts Consulted

• Catholic Bible. Suggested trans. Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition.
• Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Edition, 1997.

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