Day 231: Our Calling

Incorporated into Christ by Baptism, Christians are "dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus" and so participate in the life of the Risen Lord. Following Christ and united with him, Christians can strive to be "imitators of God as beloved children, and walk in love" by conforming their thoughts, words, and actions to the "mind... which is yours in Christ Jesus," and by following his example. CCC 1694

Today's reading from the Catechism is about our calling to "deny [ourselves] and take up [our] cross and follow [Christ] (Matt 16:24). This includes recognizing the dignity we have as sons and daughters of God, living out our calling to witness Christ to the world through our lives. In this, the Christian moral life is bound up with both faith and the sacraments. As the Catechism Compendium notes:

What the symbol of faith professes, the sacraments communicate. Indeed, through them the faithful receive the grace of Christ and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which give them the capability of living a new life as children of God in Christ, whom they have received in faith.

“O Christian, recognize your dignity.” (Saint Leo the Great) (#357)

I really like the commentary the Catechism Companion, Vol II has for this:

We hear the Gospel proclaimed, are brought into communion with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit through the sacraments, and are called to live new life as partakers of the divine nature and children of God. Our high call comes from God himself and from the dignity that he has given us... We fall, but the Lord sustains us, giving us grace through the sacraments and prayer. Jesus has gone ahead of us, living in loving obedience to his Father, and we are called to follow in his footsteps toward heaven. (p. 226)