Have you ever asked yourself the question, ‘What was St George Preca’s main wish?’ As any other human being, Fr George – as he would have liked to be addressed – had his own wishes too. It is evident from his writings that one of the main wishes was that of becoming more like our Lord Jesus Christ. This wasn’t just a wish he had for himself but he wanted that everyone strives to achieve this objective.
In the Scriptures we read, ‘Have the same mindset as Jesus Christ’ (Phil 2:5). Fr George would have said to us: Embrace the Spirit of Christ as such Spirit includes each and every virtue, every good power. As the potter gives shape to an object from clay, we need to allow God to continue to mould us and form us in the image of Jesus Christ. We start changing in a way that our thoughts, our decisions, our sentiments, our dreams and our desires will become increasingly similar to those of Jesus Christ himself. Every human being is invited to embark on this transformational process through which, from a ‘natural’ human being, he starts resembling Jesus more closely in order to become the new human, a spiritual human being.
Fr George therefore recommends that we cast our look on Christ Jesus and always seek to imitate him in everything. Look at him and be silent, let him speak to you and do all that you see him doing and hear him saying to you. Let him enkindle your heart so that you can imitate him in everything. Generate in you the desire that your heart resembles that of Christ himself and with a completely patient attitude, let him gradually change you in order that you become like him.
Fr George often used to suggest that we do the exercise promoted by St Vincent de Paule. In this exercise one has to ask himself: ‘Had Jesus been in my position, what would he have thought, or what would he have said or done?’ Thus, your decisions and your actions will always be enlightened by Jesus himself who assured us that he is the only way that leads to the Father.
One of the key ways which without any doubt, helps a person to become more like Christ is good instruction – the source of all good things. The main aim of the Society Fr George set up, the Society of Christian Doctrine, is precisely that the members within it become saints and that they teach others in order that others too succeed in becoming saints through what they learn. The desire for sainthood is the desire that we become ever more like Christ, the same wish Fr George had; would that the whole world follows the teachings of Christ!
Let us pray and ask God that through the intercession of St George Preca, he grants us the grace that we always continue to change to become more like Christ so that we too, together with St Paul would be able to say, ‘ Do I live? It is no longer me; Christ lives within me (Gal 2:20).
