We hope you have all had a most blessed beginning to this beautiful season of Advent. Today we are sharing a part of a book that we have recently published, Personality Plus - A Guide to Developing a Christ-like Character.
We thought you might enjoy the following as much as we did:
Personality Plus: A Guide to Developing Christ-like Character
Arthur Tonne, O.F.M.
Excerpt from Chapter Six – Appearance
… No doubt you have often wondered, as I have often wondered, just what Jesus looked like. Oh, that we had a photograph of Him, that we could behold Him in the full bloom and beauty of His manhood.
Lacking a photograph, we do have a word picture of the Master, said to have been penned on the spot where Jesus began His ministry, penned by one Publius Lentulus, governor of Judea. It was addressed to the Roman Senate in line with the governor’s duty of reporting to the Emperor any noteworthy event during his office:
“There appeared in these days a man of great virtue, named Jesus Christ, who is yet among us; of the Gentiles accepted as a prophet of truth: but His disciples call him the son of God. He raiseth the dead and cureth all manner of disease. A man of stature somewhat tall and comely, with a very reverent countenance, such as the beholder must both love and fear. His hair the color of a chestnut full ripe, plain to the ears, whence, downward, it is more oriental, curling and waving about his shoulders. In the midst of his forehead is a partition of his hair; forehead plain and very delicate; his face without spot or wrinkle, beautiful with a lovely red; his nose and mouth well-formed; his beard thick, in color like his hair, not over-long; his look innocent and mature; his eyes gray, quick and clear.
“In reproving he is terrible; in admonishing, courteous and fair-spoken; pleasant in conversation, mixed with gravity. It cannot be remembered that any have seen him laugh, but many have seen him weep; in proportion of body most excellent; his hands and arms most delectable to behold; in speaking, very temperate, modest, and wise; a man of singular beauty, surpassing the children of men.”
Doesn’t He fire your imagination? Doesn’t He seem to be sitting beside you while you read, just as He seems to be at my elbow as I typewrite? That is Jesus, the Man; look at Him long and lovingly. Burn into your brain that picture of Him. See Him as you work, see Him as you play, see Him as you pray, see Him as you sleep – the loving and lovable Jesus.
We will do everything, say everything, as He would do and say it. We will be like Him in the neatness of our dress, in the cleanliness of our body, in the kindness of our expression, in the calmness of our actions.
We can even speak with reverence of the “pep” of Christ. Picture Him driving the sellers from the temple:
“And he entered the temple, and began to cast out those who were selling and buying in the temple; and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold the doves.” St. Mark, 11:15.
Throwing over the tables and chairs is the work of no womanish man or weakling. Christ was every inch a Man.
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