Jewels overflowing

Christianity is not a creed or institution or cultic activity or doctrine (although it includes all of these). Christianity is Christ’s life lived by us.

“What in fact is a Christian? ‘Another Christ,’ all antiquity replies.” And what is the life the Christian lives? “A list of observances? No. It is the life of Christ within us … it is the Divine life overflowing from the bosom of the Father into Christ Jesus and, through Him, into our soul.”

David Fagerburg, “A Theology of Liturgy,” Liturgical Ministry, Vol. 14 (Fall 2005)

In that case, faith is not our belief in God, it is a share of Christ’s trust in the father; hope is not our optimism, is is Christ’s confidence in the Father made ours; love is not our affection for the deity, it is Christ’s filial intimacy with the Father spilled over to include us through the Holy Spirit.

In this I hear Paul saying:

…it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)