A Meditation for our third week of Eastertide in 2026

Our earliest monastic siblings from the deserts of Egypt were pursuing a life of perfection in Christ. It is far easier to be present with Jesus when I am living like Him. A perfect Christian life would be one where I live, move, feel, and breathe just like Jesus. It is a life where I have stopped keeping myself from God in a thousand little ways each day. Last week I shared my struggle to replace the ways of death in my life with the resurrected life. Of all that my faith has asked of me, this ongoing work of choosing life is the hardest. 

Choosing life is the hardest work because of how subtle and innocent the ways of death often appear. In Acts 2, I hear Peter proclaim the call to repent and be baptized. In Peter’s first letter, he says that because my heart has been purified by obedience to the truth (which I understand to be Jesus), I have a mutual love for others. A genuine love for others from the depths of my heart. This is beautiful, but if I am honest, it is short of my experience.

The work of becoming like Jesus (often called sanctification) requires me to become ever more aware of the ways I am not like Jesus. It shouldn’t be a surprise to me how pervasive sin and death is, but it is far more creative than I wish it were. The biggest difference I’ve noticed is that the work of Christ on the cross has taken away it’s shame. Every morning there is more grace and mercy awaiting me than I could need in a lifetime. Here is an even kinder and quieter mercy of God – I only see so many of my shortcomings at once. For all that God invites me to see today, He has made a way for me to turn towards the way of Jesus.

This is one of the reasons I have come to cherish the Jesus Prayer, which comes from our desert monastic mothers and fathers. It is my go-to breath prayer. “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, * have mercy on me, a sinner.” Every impulse, feeling, and movement that is out of alignment with what the person of Jesus would do in my place reminds me that I am a sinner. At this point in my life, the sting of that word – sinner – is gone. I hope you find your way there too. If you are someone who has had the word sin or sinner weaponized against you, I grieve with you. I see no mistake, failure, or fault in the way our God lovingly crafted you. No one is sin, and everyone will sin. What leads us away from Jesus is sin. Let us trust the Holy Spirit of the living God to guide each of us towards perfection of mind and spirit. I have seen far too many people who find themselves in grave circumstances as their un-Christlike choices escalate and come to reign over their lives. I don’t want that to be my story. I don’t want it to be your story. Our Way of Life is here to invite me into all the ways Jesus wants me to become like Him as I live in my city.

The monastic life has been one way for people longing to embody and live out the prefection offered by Jesus. It is a life that has grinded me down, humbled me, and brings me to lead with compassion and kindness. I have yet to meet someone who didn’t also have a hard life, or who wasn’t in need of compassion and grace. So I find myself in love with Jesus who looks upon me with compassion and love. Maybe today I might shine that same compassion and love upon others who need it just like I do.

May the love of our God draw you towards perfection in Christ.

Photo Credit
Paul Prins on 24 October 2024 in Berlin.

Urban Monastics, as a community and organization, bases our Christian faith on the Nicene Creed as an expression of our ecumenical core value. This author is expressing their experience and understanding of faith in ways more detailed than the creed expresses. There is welcome diversity in theology as long as those expressions follow our code of conduct.