SOME THOUGHTS FROM FR. RON:
Recently Fr Bill asked if I would be interested in writing this column from time to time. I was reluctant, but I told him I would do it whenever he was away for a week or had way too much to do. The issue then became what to write about. But two weekends ago I celebrated Mass at several parishes where, at the request of the diocese, they handed out copies of Matthew Kelly’s Rediscover Jesus. That suggested a topic: Do we have to “rediscover” Jesus? Haven’t we always known him?
Many of us, like Christians over the centuries, out of reverence for the divinity of Jesus, have made him remote and distant, someone in heaven with God the Father. As a result people give more attention to the Blessed Virgin Mary or to other saints, who seem closer to us. Or they give more attention to getting the doctrinal teaching about Christ correct: that He is divine and human, the Savior of the world, the Son of God, and so on. Or they focus on the Church and its teachings and rules. Or other people tell us about the Jesus they have met in their lives. We can even read about Him in the Bible. But even when we pray to Jesus, we still don’t know Jesus Himself. What we know when we pray is what we are saying to Him.
Think for a minute about your experience when someone keeps telling you about a friend of theirs and how much you would enjoy their company. Your friend describes what his/her friend looks like, what s/he does, and so on. You get information about the person but you still don’t know that person directly yourself. Many know about Jesus but don’t know Jesus Himself. And yet, knowing Jesus is our salvation.
How can we come to know Jesus for ourselves? How can we know Jesus not just as an historical personage, not just a character in a gospel story on paper, not just the subject of a church teaching but as a living person?
How do we get to know anyone? We sit with the person. We watch what s/he does. We listen to what the person says. We open ourselves to the other. We ask the person personal questions. We pay attention to how we feel when we are listening to the person. We tell the person about ourselves (and notice whether they are paying attention). Sometimes we just sit quietly with the person.
And sometimes we run out of space…more later!