Sixth, Matthew 19[:21]: “Follow Me.”
Sixth, Matthew 19[:21]: “Follow Me.”
§ 98. (VI) The sixth testimony is drawn from the same passage: “The Lord says to the young man: ‘Follow Me’ [Matt. 19:21]. This following was the counsel because it is said only to him who wishes to be perfect and to whom Christ has said, ‘Sell what you have.’ ”
We respond. (1) This, too, was a personal command, namely, that this young man should give up everything and follow Christ, should join the apostles, and should be prepared for the preaching of the Gospel in the school of Christ. “To follow Christ” is used in this sense [many times]. When Christ sees Matthew sitting at the tax office, He says to him (Matt. 9:9): “Follow Me.” [Again:] “We have left everything and have followed You” (Matt. 19:27). “We saw a man who was casting out demons, and he was not following us” (Mark 9:38). “Follow Me,” (Luke 9:59), where the explanation is given: “Go and announce the kingdom of God” (v. 60). Such a following is not prescribed for everyone, for what is prescribed to the young man is forbidden to the scribe (Luke 9:58). Also the freed demoniac (Mark 5:18) kept asking to be with Christ, but this was not permitted him. In fact, he is told: “Go to your own house” [v. 19]. Therefore it is certain that a personal vocation is being described. Augustine (De cons. evang., 2, ch. 63): “Follow the Lord if you wish to be perfect, if you wish to join those among whom He speaks His wisdom. He knows how to distribute to day and to night so that even the lights in the firmament are made for you.”
(2) But there is also another kind of following of Christ which Bellarmine unwittingly confuses with the first, namely, that which is necessary to all true Christians, by which we follow Christ by believing, living, and bearing the cross patiently. About this kind of following Christ says, “He who would come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross each day, and follow Me” (Matt. 16:24; Luke 9:23).
(3) Bellarmine says that in this saying the phrase “to follow Christ” should be understood to mean an imitation of Christ; yet that is necessary for all the devout. It is not just counseled but commanded. “Be imitators of me as I am of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1). “Be imitators of God” (Eph. 5:1). “Christ suffered for us, leaving an example, that we should follow in His steps” (1 Pet. 2:21). Augustine (De civ. Dei, 8, ch. 17): “The sum of the Christian religion is to imitate Him whom you worship.” Paulinus (Letter 2 ad Sulp.):
You can gather how significant it is to follow Christ from the apostle’s statement where he says, “Whoever says that he follows Christ should himself walk just as He walked” [1 John 2:6]. How Christ walked is taught by another teacher. He says: “He does not sin, nor is any deceit found in the mouth of Him who, when He was reviled, did not revile. Furthermore, He gave Himself into death for one who judged unjustly” [1 Pet. 2:22–23]. But from His own actions and from His commandments we can learn how He walked to set down His life as a pattern and mirror of life.
Bernard (on Song of Songs, sermon 21, col. 550): “Everyone wants to enjoy Christ, but not to imitate Him. They are not interested in seeking Him, but they wish to find Him. They wish to catch up to Him, but not to follow Him.”
(4) “To deny oneself ” is “not to accommodate oneself to the judgment and will of the other,” from which [definition] they deduce “blind obedience” (as it is called in the rules of the Jesuit order). Instead, it means to renounce one’s own honor, one’s own love, one’s own will; to resist the lusts of the flesh; to follow the prompting of the Spirit; to submit oneself reverently to God’s will.
(5) Bellarmine admits that here the text speaks about the obedience which we necessarily owe God. Why, then, does he include it among the counsels of perfection? But as he says: a counsel of religious obedience is drawn from this passage because the following of Christ, which is common to all Christians, is one thing, but that which is counseled only to those who wish to be perfect is something else. But by proceeding in this way he is begging the question, for the question is whether or not some special following has been placed in the evangelical counsels in addition to the general following [of all Christians].