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Contemplating Jesus' Life Teaches Despising of the World
By Archdeacon Habib Guirgus
Contemplate the life of your Savior, and you will find it a wonderful example for despising the world. Take Him diligently as your guide, walk in the trail of His footsteps, and adopt His method of living in your own life. Subsequently, you will find knowledge, perfection, wisdom, and the discernment required to overcome the vanity of this world. You will be able to despise the joy of life.
This
state is far better than that of a skillful philosopher who knows his research
well and contemplates about the creation.
Many follow Jesus on the path from afar, but very few walk with Him and follow
in His footsteps.
Many are Christians by name, but the true Christians are very few.
The life of your Savior is a very precious book. If you examine it and look into
it carefully, you will acquire every excellent virtue, attain a pure nature,
and learn how to reject all the vanities of the world and despise them.
His poorness tells you how insignificant the joys of the world are; the
pettiness of the manger tells you how meaningless temporal places are.
Whenever you gaze into the life of the Son of God, the truth of the vanity of
this world will manifest before you. For instance, His birth, life and death,
were great examples of despising the lusts of this world.
For your sake, He became poor, put to shame, insulted, and despised, even
though He is mighty, honored, powerful, and endlessly glorified.
When "Rebekah looked up, and when she saw Isaac, she slipped quickly from
the camel... she took her veil and covered herself" (Genesis 24:64, 65). O
human nature, be self-conscious and shy, come down from your self-praise; stop
your greed and put an end to your boasting, put on the clothe of meekness, and
slip quickly from the chariot of vain glory.
O my soul, step upon all the glory of the world by your feet, and disdain all
that is in the world, and follow in the footsteps of your Savior.
Sit like Mary at the feet of Jesus and hear His words, to choose that good
part, which will not be taken away from you (cf. Luke 10:39, 42).
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