Looking into the Mirror of Christ

In a letter to St. Agnes of Prague, St. Clare, whose feast we celebrate today, tells her to look into the “mirror” of Christ, to contemplate His humility, poverty and love for humanity, and to study her own reflection in this mirror. As a bride of Christ, she was to strive to conform herself to His image and thus studying daily this reflection of Him and examining how her own reflection measured up was to be vital to her spiritual life.

Although we aren’t all bound to the vows of religious life, we still are called to live in conformity with Christ and to strive toward this daily. And Catholics, as members of the Bride of Christ, the Church, are especially called to this, because as Jesus once told St. Faustina, “The Bride must resemble her Betrothed.” We should all look into this mirror and ask ourselves how well we have been conforming ourselves to the virtues of Christ and whether there are things that we need to change or adjust in our lives to better help ourselves to strive toward these virtues daily. Gazing upon and meditating on the image of Christ, particularly Him crucified, gives us the insight into the poverty, humility, and love for mankind that He had and that we must likewise possess in order to be conformed to Him and give Him to others whom we interact with in our lives.

Jesus was so poor in spirit that the will of His Father, above all other things, was His daily food and He was willing to suffer and die in order to fulfill this will. How much do we treasure the will of God in our lives and how far are we willing to go to fulfill it? Do we honestly love God above all things?

Jesus was so humble that He was willing to come down from heaven and take up our human nature, suffering and dying for our salvation. He always pointed to His Father and never praised Himself. Are we humble in our everyday lives, acknowledging that we are nothing without God and cannot do anything without Him?

Jesus so loved mankind that He died on the Cross for our salvation. Do we truly show our love for God in the way we love our neighbor? Do we let little annoyances and disagreements get the best of our emotions in our everyday lives?

It is important that we look into this mirror often, in order to see Christ as He is and examine our conscience and see what we are. Much like when we look at our own reflection in a mirror and fix things, like our hair or the collar of our shirt, in order to look better, looking at the mirror of Christ will show us what we need to fix in ourselves in order to be more like Him.

St. Clare, pray for us!