Would you like to kindle the flame of divine love for Christ and virtue? It is natural, then, to endure persecutions and face all difficulties with joy, because the greatest and most beautiful rewards await us in heaven. Love for the One who sets spiritual struggles, love for Christ, has such strength that it gives us certain faith and hope in the eternal heavenly rewards that we do not see now. When we love Christ and think and study His life, we humble ourselves and feel our human weakness, and we are overcome by pain and crushed for our sins. We will be meek, just, charitable, and workers of love and unity among people. In addition to all these things, there will be joy and deep humility of spirit, even if we have to go through life with persecution and humiliation because of our devotion to Christ and dedication of our souls to Him.

We can have the most spiritual goods, we can enjoy spiritual thinking and study and maintain good intentions. We can also work to possess spiritual and psychological beauty and to preserve the priceless riches that we receive through the sacraments so that we do not soil and tear the royal robes that we have worn. We have reason and logic, which are gifts from God. We have reason and logic to study the life of Christ. The Lord is the first example to which man should look. What we do and what we advise man to do, we learn from Christ because He is the first, the middle and the last who guided and guides men to the true path and the sublime spiritual life. Christ is the first and inspiring example, and at the same time He is the prize and crown that the strivers will receive. Our eyes should be directed towards Christ and we should also study His life as much as possible to know how to strive. The strivers do not think of struggle and fatigue but of prizes. They gladly accept to bear all the toils and pains of the struggle and to show great endurance when they think of the beauty and splendor of the crown of victory. But who among us does not know that we must fight the good fight to which Christ calls us, in addition to the unfading crowns that await us? Christ bought us with His precious blood and we are all His. No one but Christ deserves our love and we must serve Him and dedicate ourselves, our body, our soul, our love, our memory, our mind and our work to Him. Therefore the Apostle Paul says: “You are not your own, for you were bought with a great price. Therefore glorify God with your body and your spirit, which are God’s.” (1 Corinthians 6:20).

We have the potential to become men renewed in Christ. We have been given the mind to know Christ and the desire to cling to Him. We have the imagination to conceive Him and think of Him, for He is our first principle and example. The old Adam is not an example to be imitated, but the new Adam was perfect and an example of obedience to the Father, “became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8). The old Adam was burdened with disobedience and transgression, but the new Adam was perfect in every way: “I have fulfilled the commandments of my Father, and I dwell in him in love” (John 15:10). The old Adam introduced the imperfect life that needed thousands of assistances, and Christ is the source of immortal life for men because He rose from the dead and is the Master of immortality and the Giver of it to the human race. In short, He is the divine Savior, the perfect man in his way of life and He alone is the first in everything.