Be C.H.R.I.S.T.

So I had a random idea the other day (actually about 2 months ago) as I was teaching a religion certification course for yet another cute “let’s take a word and make it something religious” idea (like WWJD – What Would Jesus Do; PUSH – Pray Until Something Happens; FROG – Fully Rely on God, etc.).

I liked C.H.R.I.S.T., but instead of making it into a sentence, I assigned words to each one. This is what I got:

C – Congruent

H – Holistic (or Holy)

R – Relational (or Radical)

I – Incarnational (or Inspirational)

S – Sacramental (or Sacred)

T – Transparent

Congruent

Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary defines congruence as being in agreement, harmony, or correspondence. Gandhi had a quote that went to the effect that you find true happiness when what you believe, what you say, and how you act are all in accord. My boss likes to say that as Christians we should walk the walk, not just talk the talk. All of these fall under this idea – that we should act as we name ourselves: followers of Christ Jesus.

Holistic

going back to Merriam-Webster, I find that holistic means relating to or concerned with wholes or with complete systems rather than with the analysis of, treatment of, or dissection into parts. When we become followers of Jesus, one of our tasks is to take all the disparate parts of ourselves – mind, body, soul, spirit, thought, sexuality, relationality, etc., and integrate it. We are called to imitate Jesus, and Jesus is imaged as being fully integrated – not suppressing or repressing parts of his psyche/soul, but being in harmony with himself. We are called to take care of ourselves in all aspects, to care for ourselves as living temples of the Living God.

Relational

St. John says that we cannot profess to love the God we cannot see if we cannot love the people around us who we can see. God invites us as individuals to become part of a greater whole. Hence the way we relate to others is a direct measure of how we relate to Divinity. Especially for Christians (but Buddhists also stress this), then, Church (community) becomes a place where we get to see how fully we have become like Christ. We are called to be in relation to those around us because they are images and reflections of Divinity.

Incarnational

I think many people have trouble with this one. They want to leave this messy, materialistic place for a more spiritual plane. But we tend to forget that God was one of us – Jesus ate, drank, sweated, used the restroom, had bad hair days, needed to bathe, etc. Our world is full of the grandeur of God – the heavens proclaim the glory of God. The Gospel of Thomas says it thus: lift a rock and you will find me; split a piece of wood and you will find me there (loosely quoted – can’t remember the exact quote and too lazy right now to look it up!). We are called to be people that love our earth and love those around us and love ourselves because God has placed us here for our enjoyment and his glory. This is not a bad place, this is not just a waiting place until we get to something better – this is a place of divine purpose and sacred beauty – a place of wonder and awe where God can break into our lives at any moment through the vehicle of his creation.

Sacramental

Pretty much what I said in Incarnational 🙂

Transparent

Similar to Congruent, we should live our lives and pray our lives in such a way that we remember that God knows us through and through. We should strive to put away our duplicitousness – the need we have to lie to ourselves and others, the need we feel to try and justify whoa and what we are because we’re not sure if other people will like/accept us. We should live lives that will be broken open at the end of time for all to see. We should live lives that we can be proud of – moment to moment, year to year, lifetime to lifetime.

Enjoy! 🙂

Blessings & Peace,

Hugo