Caryll Houselander on the Ipse Christus - "The Reed of God."

“If Christ is formed of our lives, it means that He will suffer in us. Or, more  truly, we will suffer in Him.

            ‘And He was made man.’ 

                

Our lady saw at once what was meant in her case: supernaturally, He was made herself.

If He is made man in you, He will be made you; in me, me.

It is extremely difficult to lay hold of this fact. It is very hard not to think of a kind of mystical Christ just beside us or just in front of us, suffering with infinite patience and joy, being obedient, humble, persevering, fulfilling His Father’s will.

It is really difficult to realize that if He is formed in our life we are not beside Him but in Him and what He asks of us is to realize that it is actually in what we do that He wants to act and to suffer.

For example, if you are conscripted, it is Christ Who is saying good-bye and leaving His home: Christ  Who is marching on the endless route march. The blisters on the feet the new recruit are bleeding on the feet of Christ.

            Again, if you are an office worker and the person over you is trying perhaps rather limited in intelligence, so that you imagine you have some kind of right to be irritable, well, it is not you at all that must be obedient and humble and gracious , it is Christ, Christ Who said to the weak and timid civil servant, Pontius Pilate:  ‘You would have no power over Me if it were not given to you from above.’

            It really needs to be practiced to be understood. We need to say to ourselves a thousand times a day: ‘Christ wants to do this.’ ‘Christ wants to suffer this.’"


Blogger: That is: My act of self - giving is the Christ I am coming to be.