“Excuse me brother but do you have a personal relationship
with Jesus Christ?”
You may have heard this question asked if you have spent any
time around our Evangelical kinsmen. By personal relationship they actually
mean private relationship. As Catholics we know that personal relationship
really is supposed to be a public relationship. The love of Jesus is not
supposed to be confined to our hearts and our homes. We are to take him
wherever we go and not be ashamed to show our relationship with him in all that
we do.
As Catholics we are lucky. We have much more than just a
personal relationship with Jesus. We have an intimate relationship with him. He
gives us his complete self and we take him fully into our being each and every
time we receive the Eucharist in Holy Communion. You cannot get any more
intimate than that. If we allow Jesus to work within us we become lanterns
carrying the light of his love to every person we encounter. You can’t get any
more public than that. That should be exactly what he wants us to do but…
Adult Catholics in first world nations are falling away from
the faith at an increasing pace. Many church-shop protestant religions or end
up at one of the modern mega churches. Over time they even fall away from these
as they no longer see the relevance of church in their lives. We aren’t doing
much better with the youth, many of whom we won’t see again after they leave
the church on their confirmation day until they are ready for the big
celebration wedding. Finding a young adult with an active faith life through
and after college is about as hard as finding a couple happily married to each
other for over thirty years.
So if what we have is so great why do so many walk away from
it?
I think a large part of the problem comes down to just one
word – “about”. It is the difference between “knowing” and “knowing about” Jesus.
“Knowing about” someone indicates that you have a trivial knowledge of them.
“Knowing” someone indicates an intimate knowledge. I know about Adolf Hitler,
Steve Jobs, and Mother Theresa. I can tell you when they were born, where they
lived, and how they died. I can tell you why each of these people are
significant in human history. I do not know any of them. I have no real
personal connection to them. They are just people in the history book.
I think this is where the Catholic Church has greatly failed
in our instruction of the faithful, especially our children. We have done a
fabulous job of telling the faithful about Jesus. We sit our children in
religious education classes and CCD and tell them about who Jesus was and what
he did in his ministry. They learn how great he is and what he means to our
Church. I think far too many of our teachers instruct instead of introduce. You
can’t possibly expect anyone to develop a personal and intimate relationship
with someone they only know about.
Jesus is my friend, my brother, my savior, my Lord, and my God.
I want to introduce you to him so that you may come to know him and be his
friend too. What does it take to be a friend to anyone? A friendship is very
difficult to maintain with someone you never see and you never speak to.
If you want to be a friend to someone you have to spend time
with them. If you want to have Jesus as a friend you have to spend time with
him as well. The absolutely best place to spend time with Jesus is Sunday Mass
where you get to hold him in your hands and take him completely into your
being. There is no way to get any closer to Christ than this. How would you
feel if you threw a party that was very important to you and your friends never
showed up? Sunday Mass is that party for the Lord and he does miss you when you
are not there.
The closer you are to someone the more time you want to
spend with that person. Young love is proof to this. Young lovers can sit for
hours doing nothing more than just gaze into each other’s eyes. As Jesus becomes
a closer friend you will find yourself wanting to spend more time with him as
well. For those with the option daily Mass is a great way to spend time with
our Lord. Eucharistic adoration is another. Sitting in the actual presence,
body, blood, soul, and divinity is a very powerful thing if you allow it to be.
The other requirement for a close friendship is
communications. One of the most common reasons a marriage fails today is
because husbands and wives stop communicating with each other. When the conversation
stops people start to grow apart. Sooner or later you don’t know each other. If
you want to have Jesus as a close friend you have to converse with him. This
comes in the form of prayer.
“Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for
you in Christ Jesus.” – 1 Thessalonians 5:
16-18
The more you pray the closer you will
become to Jesus. But communications is a two way street. You also have to be
willing to listen when Jesus talks back. He speaks to us through a small, still
voice during the times our hearts are at rest. The devil knows this and fills
our lives with as much noise and distraction as possible. When you can’t hear
Jesus talking to you, you stop talking to Jesus and you begin to drift apart.
Eventually he becomes somebody you used to know and now only know about.
Our religious education classes, CCD, RCIA,
and other formation programs shouldn’t start and end in a classroom. They
should start in the sanctuary with an introduction to Jesus the person. We need
to bring people to know Jesus first and then teach about him. When you know you
often want to know about. If you start with knowing about often times you no
longer want to spend the time to get to know. When you don’t know it is hard to
find the relevance in your life. This is where more and more people fall away
from the faith.
“Jesus said to him,
“Have I been so long with you, and yet
you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father…”
– John 14, 9
Be a blessing to everyone you meet and let them be a
blessing to you.
