Do you think like Christ and see like Christ? Or do you think like and see like a human? But first, a check-in: how is your Lent going? How are you doing with walking with and acting like Christ? What is something that you need to improve or do better at? Now is the time to do it. We still have time. We can do better, and what else can we add to help us walk with and act like Christ?
So, do you think like Christ and see like Christ? I would hope that everyone just thought, “Of course, I do,” but I would hope that everyone would know better that everyone of us does not. If we did, we would not sin, we would understand, we would be perfect like Christ, but we are not.
The Gospel reading today is all about how the Samaritan woman and his disciples think first about the earth and do not understand what Jesus is talking about. We all think about the earth just like in the Gospel. Our minds go first to what we can understand before we can even try to understand what God is talking about. Yes, we might understand what Jesus is talking about in this Gospel because we understand more about our faith, but when we hear something new for the first time, we add into our own understanding and assume things. We try to fill in the gaps.
This is great when we think about humans’ things and that we know about, but when we are trying to think more like Christ, it gets difficult. We naturally go to and add things of our humanity, but God is calling us to elevate our mentality towards him.
Now this is difficult because we have to go away from what we naturally do. We need to put on the mind of God. This means that when we naturally want to be angry or upset, we take a breath and think about how God would handle this. This means when we want to lie, we choose to be honest. This means when we want to do whatever sin you do every day, we do not do it. All this means is that when we want to respond like a human, we respond how God would respond. Not with anger, hatred, lying, or any sin, but with patience, gentleness, love, and understanding. It is easy for us to think like a human, which means we need to learn what God would do and apply it to our lives.
How can you start to do this in your lives and what can get you to actually do it? Everyone is different from each other, so ask God to show you what you need to do and not assume what you already do it what God wants. Actually, take a look at every action of your life and see what actions you do is from God or from being human. Christ is there to help you to act like him through every action. Look at it from God’s eyes and not our own. Lent is a great time to do this.
Brothers and sisters, please try to act like Christ by thinking like Christ. We humans like to bring in things and assume things that are not from God. We fill in the gaps with humans’ things, but Christ is calling us to act like him by thinking like Him. So how can you think like Christ?
Given on Third Sunday of Lent Year A