There is a story about a man and a woman who ordered two fried chicken dinners from a takeaway restaurant. The girl at the counter mistakenly gave them a bag of money, the entire day’s proceeds, instead of fried chicken. The man and woman drove to their picnic site and sat down to enjoy their chicken dinner. To their surprise, they discovered that it was a bag of money, totaling almost $1,500. They put the money back in the bag, drove back to the restaurant and returned the money bag to the restaurant manager. The manger was overwhelmed, and declared both the man and woman heroes, even saints. He wanted to call the local press to put the story and the couple’s picture in the local newspaper. But the man refused to cooperate. Instead he leaned over the counter and whispered in the ears of the manager, “You see, the woman I’m with is not my wife…she’s uh, somebody else’s wife.”

The man and woman scored high in justice and concern for others, but they scored low in self-denial. The gospel challenges us to score high in both self denial and concern for others. This is the mark of a true Christian.

Many Christians, it seems, often belong to one of two camps. Either they score high marks in their commitment to serve their fellow man, but are low in self-denial. Or they score high in self denial but are low in their commitment to serve others. St. James, the apostle of practical Christianity, teaches us that a true Christian must score high marks in both (concern for the welfare of others and self-denial) in order to be truly acceptable before God. He teaches the importance of faith combined with action or love for others, and he explains this in his letter.

Jesus emphasizes this teaching when he states: “Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.” A true Christian does not merely make sacrifices, attend church, read the scriptures or celebrate inspiring liturgies: wonderful though these may be. The litmus test of the true Christian is how he or she lives out the word of God in their lives. “Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves,” says St. James. “If any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like (James 1:22-24).

The analogy of a man who looks in the mirror and sees his dirty face and disheveled hair and goes away without doing anything about it is very appropriate. The word of God is as a mirror which shows us how dirty our faces are and how disheveled our hair is. A wise person would immediately take steps to wash his face to improve his looks. That is the purpose of the mirror which is an image of the word of God. Hearing the word of Jesus alone does not make us Christian. It is when we take steps to put into action what Jesus teaches us that we become Christian.

It is not easy today to tell a true Christian from a false Christian when so many are divided in their understanding about what it means to be a Christian. Jesus makes it clear that the true Christian is one who “denies himself and takes up his cross to follow him” ( Mark 8 : 34 ). This kind of Christian is a true follower because he is prepared, by denying himself, to act like Christ, to find Christ in himself. The false Christian, on the other hand, finds himself in Christ by paying lip-service while refusing to deny himself.

Strive, therefore, to put on Christ by denying, in yourself, whatever conflicts with Jesus’s example of love.

—Fr. Hugh Duffy